DANGEROUS GAMES (Project: Next Avengers) Season 1
by xXMistyImaginingsXx
Summary: Years after age of Ultron the world has changed and evolved. More and more Super Villains dissipated and global threats were at a complete all time low. The supposed need for superheroes has disappeared. But as always, peace never lasts. With all world-wide defenses at an all time low, it's up to the remainder of S.H.E.I.L.D to search the globe for the next generation of Avengers.
1. Dangerous Games Season 1 Guide

Trigger Warning! Mentions of abuse and substance abuse.

Rated PG13 for murder, alcoholism, language and sexual themes.

 _ **~Season 1~**_

 _ **(All second parters to Episodes will be released 2 days after part one and third parts if any will be released 2 days after that.)**_

 **Episode 1 Pilot** : Eight kid protege's of varying kinds receive a special call out when global suspicions arise. (3 parts) -June 3rd

 **Episode 2 Unknown Intentions** : As Adeline and J.P Maximoff try to escape, they are reminded of a certain debt they owe and are held hostage; it's up to Adam to bail them out. (1 part) -June 10th

 **Episode 3 Persuasive Rescue** : Alice's mother is having unusual doubts about letting her daughter go to America. Will Adam and Alice busting some dirty dealing in her home town be enough to change Yelena Belova's mind? (2 parts) -June 17th

 **Episode 4 Pulling it Together:** With Canary's parent's agreed to let her go to S.H.I.E.L.D it seems like a cake walk until student's start disappearing at her school. Naturally, she asks Adam for help. (2 parts) -June 24th

 **Episode 5 Perfect on the Outside:** What seems like an easy, normal family debate about Matthew going to a certain school turns out to be a house of disarray. Adam will have to act quickly yo get an extremely powerful meta-human under control. (2 parts) -July 1st

 **Episode 6 Let's get moving:** Finally all the initiates are at HQ, but with things going less than according to plan, it's time for Adam to call in some back up. (2 parts) -July 8th

 **Episode 7 A little bit of Chaos:** Thing's go from bad to worse when a mobster working for the infamous Allure messes with the kids abilities. (2 parts) -July 15th

 **Episode 8 First Day of School** : When Maria Hill decides that the kids must continue a formal education, things go a bit array. (1 part) -July 22nd

 **Episode 9 Being Inhuman:** Adam get's to work on training and cultivating the kids powers, though it comes easier to some more than others. (2 parts) -July 29th

 **Episode 10 Complications Arise:** When Matthew hacks into the S.H.I.E.L.D network on a the request of Canary, he's in for more than he bargained for when he discovers someone on the inside maybe dealing with HYDRA. (2 parts) -August 5th

 **Episode 11 Minor Crisis:** With Jackson revealed as a HYDRA associate, it's up to the young protege's to shut his plans and hostage situation down before he compromises S.H.I.E.L.D's intel and weapons system. (4 parts) -August 12th

_Mid-Season Break_

 **Episode 12 Starting Out:** With the kids actions being realized by S.H.I.E.L.D higher ups; the protege's move up, but it's not all costumes and heroics and glamour. (2 parts) -August 26th

 **Episode 13 Welcome To My World:** Some of the kids get a bit of insight into Adam's past and the other S.H.I.E.L.D. (2 parts) -September 2nd

 **Episode 14 Someone Amiss:** When Adeline goes missing JP immediately accuses Alice, but is she to blame? (Release date- September 9th)

 **Episode 15 Challenging Road:** After Adam gets psychic call out from Adeline, he and some of the others head through dangerous Serpent Society claimed territory to rescue her. (3 parts) -September 16th

 **Episode 16 The Devil's Stride:** Vision had warned Adeline of a great impending danger, days later people are turned to stone when a new group called the Accession comes into town. (Release date- September 23rd)

 **Episode 17 Halloween Special:** With Rori practically begging the group to go out and have some fun for once on Halloween, they all in are for a bigger surprise when an unknown Meta-human wreaks havoc onto an unsuspecting party of humans. It'll take the help of an amazingly skilled and powerful agent to get them through. (Release date- October 31st) (MYSTERY GUEST-STAR!)


	2. Episode 1 (Pilot Pt 1)

_A game. Something fun, easy, relaxed. Barely any thought needed. Something so incredibly... simple. Until someone complicates it to the point where there is no possible comparison to what you were playing before._

 _ **Initiating Launch sequence... Read the text across the glass monitor.**_

 _ **Scanning... search complete. Subject location confirmed. Sending data... Project Next Avengers enacted.**_

Adam sat outside his home. He was procrastinating going out. There were so many things he had to do and not a lot of time this week. In all honestly he could have just stayed there. Creating images and watching the different colored lightning crack across the darkening skies.

Adam sighed and got up, his light blue eyes looking up at the sky one last time before getting up. He pushed his wet, clumped blonde hair out of his eyes. He walked across the muddy grass to the edge of the lot to his car. Adam lived a ways outside the city of Washington DC, but that's how he liked it. He liked a clear view of the sky. There were reasons for that; first one being the signs. It frustrated him to no end, but more importantly it worried him. His Dad never usually took this long to send something his way. Ever since Ragnorak... the skies had been the only way they could ever communicate. Both having a tie to the skies and storms and the stars made it easiest, although it would really have been easiest if Adam's Dad could actually get back, but no such luck blessed them.

Adam drove over to his Mom's observatory, his childhood home. Adam now being 22 didn't live there anymore, though he did visit frequently as his mother always found projects or chores and experiments that she always needed extra hands for and Adam didn't have the heart to leave her alone. He knew she was lonely even since Dad had gotten stuck off world as she would put it. It happened years and years ago, but she never did get over it and Adam never blamed her. She was never very charismatic or social, that last trait being something that must have run in the family.

Adam pushed open the glass front doors, not bothering to knock. He swore his Mom had some sixth sense for always knowing when he was around or getting into trouble and it lasted still to this day.

Adam found his mom, sitting at the kitchen island with papers scattered all around. Her red hair was tousled and pulled up into a messy bun on the top of her head. Her eyes were peering down at different equations and various charts that she had, more than likely, drawn up herself.

"You should have known better than to ask me over to help you organize," Adam said, his version of a joking greeting. His mother, Jane, grinned lightly. Light wrinkles appeared around her mouth and eyes, slight marks that came with age.

"I was hoping you had gotten better over the years," she replied wryly. Adam snorted, amused.

"You haven't seen my place."

"You've never invited me. How could I have seen the apparent mess?" Jane shot back immediately, though there was no venom behind any words spoken, just playfulness from the banter between the two.

"Part of the reason I've never brought you over," Adam said, sitting down on a stool when Jane got up.

"Don't get too comfortable," she said, picking up a few papers and attempting to organize them, "I've got a few plans for today, starting with the glass and charts in the observatory and someone sent something for you to this address again."

"Again? I moved out nearly two years ago," Adam said, a little annoyed, possibly exasperated. Jane shrugged.

"I left it on the desk." Adam nodded and got up to get all that out of the way first. He was surprised to see a large box. He certainly hadn't ordered anything, college student's never did have much extra spending money.

Adam ripped the top of the box open only to be met with a faint blue glow. He pulled the cardboard apart to find a blue and silver case. There was a familiar logo on it, one that brought back memories that made Adam's blood boil, but there still was that pang of curiosity that overpowered his grudge. Adam looked around, seeing his Mom was no where to be found and he was in fact alone. Adam then pulled the case out and examined it, he then ran his hand over the blue, glowing S.H.I.E.L.D logo. He felt a prick at his finger, he pulled his hand back, then and suddenly other parts of the case lit up and the thing whirred to life.

 **"Confirmed identity,"** the computer's voice said in a robotic monotone, **"Avengers compatibility: Thor."** Adam's eyes narrowed slightly in suspicion and curiosity. Avengers Compatibility? What was S.H.I.E.L.D running here? Adam was all but ready to decline and zap the hell out of the thing when he paused. There would be others.. he thought. This was it. This was his sign. Adam glanced out the window out into the sky. A low rumble of thunder could be heard. Adam smirked. He tapped the S.H.I.E.L.D icon for additional information.

* * *

"What the hell?" Questioned the strawberry blonde haired teenager. Her blue eyes trained themselves on the strange case. She flipped it up vertically. She was beyond confused. "Hey, Connor!" She called out loudly through the hall for her older brother, "I think this is for you!...Connor?!" Of course he was out, or maybe he was just ignoring her to go spend time with his new, dumb, fiance'. The girl sighed dully and ran he palm over the case, she was startled when it stabbed her hand with a needle and suddenly the case buzzed to life. A metallic bird logo at the center of it. She couldn't help but kick the case back in surprise.

 **"Confirmed identity: Aurora Maria Stark. Female. Age: 14. Progeny of Virginia Potts-Stark and Anthony Stark. Location: Manhattan, New York. Reading Extremis download... Avengers compatibility: Iron Man."**

"Whoa..." was the only word that formed on Rori's lips. What could this possibly be about? She wondered. She circular button with the metallic bird was flashing and Rori pressed it with no hesitation. Maybe she wouldn't tell Connor about this one.

* * *

James was helping his dad move various boxes and such of training supplies out of the huge storage hall. His blue eyes took in everything. It was often where his Dad would let him into places of the Silver Star HQ like this. Or even let him off of the living area of the compound. The blonde boy was the spit and image of his Dad, Steven Rogers. It also helped a lot that the boys Mother, Sharon Carter-Rogers, also shared very similar psychical traits.

"Um, hey Dad," James called out, "I think we missed one!" At that point Steve was too far away to hear, work being the only thing on his mind today. So James meandered over and picked up the case, it pricked his hand and so he dropped it just as the thing began to light up and glow.

 **"Confirmed identity: James Alexander Rogers. Male. Age: 15. Progeny of Sharon Carter-Rogers and Captain Steven Rogers. Location: Boston, Massachusetts. SS serum download... Avengers compatibility: Captain America."**

"Damn.." James muttered, oddly wondering what his Dad would say if he heard him cuss.

* * *

The red head worked away on the bike in the shop today. She was handy, there was no doubt about that. She pulled the mask over her hazel-blue eyes to protect them as she worked. Working in a garage really did suck sometimes. She honestly only put up with it because it was good money and her and her Mother didn't really have all that much to begin with. They moved around quite a bit, but oddly enough never left the northern tier. The girl's hand slid over a busted part of the bike and she cut her hand and wrist.

"дерьмо," she cursed as she got up from the concrete ground. She removed her goggles to get a better look and her palm. She scowled and looked over the work table to find something to cover it with. She grabbed a rag to wipe up some of the blood so she could get a better look at how deep the slash was. By now she new a thing or two about injury as her and her Mother had taken quite a few blows. Afterwards the girl threw down the rag and grabbed a roll of gauze, it would do for now, but as soon as she finished wrapping up her hand and wrist was when the distraction hit. Something from underneath the blood rag illuminated blue. She moved the rag to see a silver case with blue glowing bits.

 **"Confirmed identity: Alice Natalia Belova. Female. Age: 16 Progeny of Yelena Belova and Unknown. Location: Moscow, Russia. SS serum download... Avengers compatibility: Black Widow."**

"Боже мой ... интересно," said Alice, her lips quirking upwards ever so slightly.

Goddamn the fact that his Mom had to go and date a freaking psychologist. Sure, Matthew liked the guy, but sure as hell not recently. It was infuriating for him to try and diagnose Matthew with something like bipolar. He wasn't manic depressive for crying out loud! But then Lenard had to go and convince Matthew's Mom that something was up and now they were both on his case. It was hard enough hiding his freaky abilities without his parent's breathing down his neck 24/7.

* * *

Matthew shut himself in his room. His dark blue eyes looking for the light switch in the darkness. Once he found it he slammed down of it with his tanned skinned hand and moved further into his room. He kicked his backpack out of the way, though it was hardly in his path to begin with. He just was in a rotten mood tonight. He didn't care. He slammed his hand against his closet doors. This had been, without a doubt, one of the worst days ever and Matthew wasn't even going to get into it all. Matthew fell back onto his bed, but that wasn't the only thump in his room. Matthew slowly sat up and saw his closet doors had been shoved open and something lay on the floor holding them like that. Matthew got up, curiosity urging him to, and he examined the item. It was a silver and blue case. He curiously poked at the metallic bird symbol only to have it poke back. Matthew didn't shy away and only pressed it again.

 **"Confirmed identity: Matthew Anthony Ross. Male. Age: 15. Progeny of Elizabeth Ross and Unknown** **.** **Location: Washington, DC. Unknown chemical download... Avengers compatibility: Hulk."**

And Matthew had completely no comment on any of that. His frustration gone in and instant as he began to toy with the strange box.

* * *

"Miss Morse," called the teacher impatiently. The blonde stopped in her tracks and moved through the kids who snickered. Though most looked confused or sympathetic. Everyone seemed to like the friendly, witty, fun girl with big green-blue eyes. Well, except for a few, but hey, every school was like that and the teenage girl didn't mind. "You sighed your paper Canary?" The teacher asked, incredulously.

"Yeah, what of it?" Canary asked, but not in a rude tone, in one that was generally care-free. The teacher sighed.

"It's not the name that's on your fo-"

"My school form? Files? I always sign my stuff Canary."

"With every other teacher? Even permission slips?" The teacher continued to press. Canary grinned shortly.

"You're new to working here, aren't you?" The teacher shrugged and pushed herself up from her chair.

"Yeah, what of it?" She said in near mock tone, reiterating what Canary had previously said. Canary quirked an eyebrow. "You may be some big shot with your parent's being who they are, but in my class you listen to my rules. Is that clear?"

"Crystal," Canary said, a smirk tugging at the corners of her lips as she backed out of the room. "I'm dropping this class." The teacher laughed shortly.

"You're dropping classes in a near military school?"

"Yeah," Canary said, grabbing her backpack, "I'm not as scared as you'd like me to be." The teacher scowled lowly and quickly wrote up a detention slip. She handed it to Canary.

"That big mouth of yours will get you in a lot more trouble."

"Oh, I'm betting on it," was the last thing Canary said before she walked out of the class room. She sighed and pushed her long blonde, curls out of her face. The hallways are empty, so the other kids were already in class and she was gonna be late. She went to her locker so she could through her books away. She had no idea why her school still had books instead of Stark Pads. But schools like this were just too old school. Canary could just blame her parent's for sending her to military school. Canary twisted the lock and threw open the door, her eyes were nearly blinded by a blue light. After blinking a few times and waiting for her eyes to adjust, Canary could clearly see it was a case. Hey, nobody was around around, so Canary took the case out of her locker, it stabbed her hand and she dropped it; the sound echoed through out the hall and Canary was lucky no one heard. It was 6th period, most everyone was outside by now.

 **"Confirmed identity: 'Canary' Isabelle Morse. Female. Age: 1** **7** **. Progeny of Barbara Morse and Step-father, Lance Hunter. Location: Oregon, Salem. Militant, focused skill set... Avengers compatibility: Hawkeye." Canary stayed silent for a moment before smirking. She was by no stretch of the imagination and idiot.**

"Damn strait," she muttered, as she walked off school ground with the case.

* * *

"Jay..Hey.. JP!" Adeline shouted to wake her younger brother up. JP rolled off the couch and Adeline rolled her eyes. "It's just about show time," she informed the lethargic, silver haired boy with silver eyes to match.

"I know," muttered JP lowly.

"What was it you were up so late looking at last night anyways?" Adeline questioned and JP only shrugged, but Adeline didn't miss his ghost of a grin and suddenly, she couldn't hide her own.

"Fine, don't tell me," she said with a wink, "you know I'll find out later."

"You'll try," JP said with a challenging smirk of his own. The siblings laughed shortly. Then soon after someone called out for Adeline and JP. Adeline walked out onto the stage, already in costume, set up for their show on the road. Adeline kept a smile plastered on her face, though it wasn't quite genuine. Never was. She danced and performed fantastic acrobatic moves that made people cheer. Every time someone would look away, she'd perform something even crazier. Then, when she had everyone's attention, JP would pickpocket various people. He would never take everything, but enough for what he and Adeline and some of the other performers needed.

However, even as the music play loudly and people cheered, JP couldn't shake last night's memory. He found an odd case in with his personal stash. He pulled it out and it pricked him shortly, but then it sprung to life, he remembered it well.

 **"Confirmed identity,"** it had said then, **"Jeremy-Pietro Aaron Maximoff. Male. Age: 14. Progeny of Wanda Maximoff and Unknown. Location: Eastern Europe, Sokovia. Mental manipulation download; classification: Energy manipulation... Avengers compatibility: QuickSilver."**

It wasn't long after the show when Adeline found her own case.

 **"Confirmed identity: Adeline Daphne Maximoff. Female. Age: 16. Progeny of Wanda Maximoff and Unknown. Location: Eastern Europe, Sokovia. Mental manipulation download; classification: Mental enhancement... Avengers compatibility: Scarlet Witch."**


	3. Episode 1 (Pilot Pt 2)

"You almost finished with that, hunny?" The female bartender asked. Adam looked up, clearly lost in thought again.

"Yeah. Sorry I held you up for so long," Adam said, placing a few bills down on the bar top for the girl to take and the reason Adam thoughts immediately went to girl is because the auburn haired, grey eyed girl looked pretty young. "You look a little young to be working in here," he said, his subconscious only registering the words before he blurted them out. The girl looked back at him from where she was putting the money into the register.

"I'm old enough," she answered.

"Old enough? For what?" Adam resounded, not sure what to say next.

"Old enough for everything," she says with a wink mildly flirting with him. She closes the resister and walks over to arrange various liquor bottles and close up different taps. Adam can't help the pang of guilt that plagues him.

"Oh," is all Adam gets out next. The bartender laughs lightly and leans on the bar top near to him.

"You're really not too great at this are you?" She says with light amusement and a small grin.

"At asking the right questions? Never." The girl hummed as her lips slightly crooked and pursed together. "You never really get anything out of that."

"Ya know you seem to have a better shot than most guys who walk in here. Most guys know what their problems are but aren't willing to go with the right answers. You.. You don't exactly know what your problems are or will be, but you're looking for the answers anyways."

"Are you a mind-reader or something?" Adam jokes lightly.

"Something like that," she says with a teasing grin, "I'm a psychology student. I'm no meta-human weirdo."

"...Course not," Adam says, not even going to open that can of worms. Not worth the hassle; not tonight.

"Got to give 'em some credit though, they're pretty good people, most of them. Even if they are complete weirdo's."

"Exactly," Adam says with an airy laugh. If only she knew. He got up from the bar stool. "Thank you again, um.."

"Misty Warren," she says as she turns out some of the lights. "You?"

"You'll see," Adam says as he starts to walk about. The girls laughs shortly.

"I pretty much summed up your entire life in ten minutes, yet you won't tell me your name?" She seems very much so amused by this fact more than upset.

"It's how you play the game, isn't it?" He says with a subtle smirk.

"You're an idiot," she decides as she wipes down the bar one last time with the rag on one of the shelves.

"Can you say that you're not at all intrigued?" Misty smiles lightly and chews on her lower lip.

"I think you know the answer to that." Adam nods.

"Have a good night, Miss Warren."

* * *

It took Adam a while to gather his thoughts about all of this. Seven kids about to be thrown into one hell of a ride.

Adam scoffed and shook his head as he leaned on the rail of the balcony outside his house. The night held a subtle breeze and the stars shined brightly tonight through the thinly layered clouds; The moon was full and all was quiet. Adam glanced down at the stone railing. These kids might as well have a death sentence, Adam thought bitterly. He shook his head again. God only knew what sentence he had endured simply because he was different. S.H.I.E.L.D didn't have the mindset, hell, didn't even have the capacity to understand these kids. They never did and they never would. Adam was fairly adamant on that particular fact. There was, however, one thing he was very much so unsure of.

What was he gonna do?

A part of himself said to leave it alone. Throw the case off the roof, shatter it and pretend it never existed in the first place. Another part of himself told him that looking the other way wasn't blindness, it was foolishness. But even if he did show what could he honestly do? He wasn't a role model. He was barely even talkative! He wasn't, in any instance he could create in his mind, at all what these kids would need.

To interrupt his thoughts the golden sphere in his jacket lit up. Adam kept his gaze down until the marginally transparent figure was fully formed, but Adam never once looked through, he only saw the girl.

"You look tired," she says as she to leans her arms on the railing, but it doesn't even move the dust on it. Adam sighs. "You should rest," she adds.

"Too much on my mind," he answers. The brunette girls grins and a light, sweet laugh escapes her. Her soft, friendly features showing as bright as day.

"Isn't there always?" Though it was voiced like a statement more than a question. Adam shrugs. "What do you need?"

"How should I know?" Adam responds with some venom, though it's already faded by the last word. The girl turns to him, her grey-silver eyes fixed intently on him.

"You called me, you remember how this works," she says as she taps his arm lightly and Adam imagines he can feel it. After a few moments of silence the seriousness resumes.

"I need.. answers, but.. I have absolutely no idea where to find them, " Adam decides finally.

"Then look closer," she says without a moment's hesitation, her face now closer with his, "start asking the right questions, that'll be the moment you start getting the right answers."

"I know I could help, but at the same time I am more likely to do much more damage." The girl looks sad about Adam's answer.

"You can't save everyone," she says lowly, looking down, "but these kids haven't even been given a chance and they might not even get one." Adam looks away from the girl, turning his gaze away, refusing to look towards her for a moment.

The digital clock inside Adam's room beeps ever so lightly, signaling his that's it's midnight.

"Make a wish," the girl very nearly whispers to him, "22 is a big number... just ask, you'll have it."

"I want..." Adam paused. So many things he wanted, but now, in this moment there was just two things he felt he needed. "...I want the knowledge and the wisdom to lead these kids." The girl smiles and Adam swears that she radiates a gold glow off of her. She tucks a stray wavy lock of hair behind her ear.

"That's all you needed to say." Then, with that gold light, she starts to fade into the night.

"I miss you," he says in a whisper.

"I know," she answers.

* * *

Matthew laid down on his bed. He felt completely terrible from the recent dose. He just needed to rest, but that's when the his body started working against him and suddenly his whole body felt like it was on fire, like he was drowning in sweat and acid was burning his insides. His metabolism burned the drugs at a humanly impossible rate.

Matthew knew his Mom and Lenard meant well, but in times of pain like this, he didn't care. Sometimes he wonder if they knew about him; about what he could do, but at the same time he knew he was impossible. He had no idea why he was different, why he was such a freak of nature and honestly he didn't have the guts to find out. It's not like he could tell anyone either, not without being locked up for being completely insane.

He had ever done one short search on Enhanced as they were called, or he supposed what he would be called. He wasn't experimented on with any strange, that was for sure. His Mom certainly didn't have abilities, she wasn't exactly fond of anyone different. He never knew his Dad, but his Mom never let on anything about him being unusual except for the fact that he could never get his shit together and stick around.

* * *

"Keep packing up, Jay," Adeline said as she shoved the last of her things into her suit case, "we are out of here." Adeline looked over to find JP lounging on the floor, feet up against the couch. He had his favored grey beanie hat on and looked nearly passed out or maybe he was just ignoring her. "JP?"

"Yeah?" He said or maybe whined. He sat up and saw Adeline with her bags. "You're really serious about leaving Sokovia, huh?" Adeline sighed and sat down on the couch.

"Do you want to do what we're.. doing forever?" JP shrugged, but his shoulders were so slumped. Adeline said nothing for another moment to let him answer. "But, we can't just leave here can we?"

"Ever since Mom got sick we have no reason to stay.. JP, I'll be honest, I don't want to dance for those kinds of people for much longer." JP just about instantly changed his mind then. He understood Adeline's concern, or maybe his own concern for her. Sure, acrobatics were fine, but dancing for the creeps that they worked for...

"...I'll finish packing up."


	4. Episode 1 (Pilot Pt 3)

Adam responded to the S.H.I.E.L.D call out early. It took him an hour to drive out to DC. He was hardly surprised that directions to their supposed location. It was a Head Quarters he hadn't been brought to before. He thought there was only one since public aspects of the government got involved after that second Civil War. Adam had no problems moving passed different parts of the building. He moved to the back of the normal looking office building. He didn't have a problem until an older man stopped him.

"Hey now, you can't be back there," he said. Adam sighed.

"I'm supposed to be here, Sir," he answered with a slight impatience. The older man whose name tag read _Stan Lee_ still didn't seem happy.

"It's restricted access." Adam pulled out his phone and let him go through the S.H.I.E.L.D messages on it. It's not like the man wasn't being obvious enough about the location of it. "Ah," he said finally, "follow me."

Eventually Adam found himself in a half sunken warehouse. It looked broken and shattered on the outside, but more high-tech and pimped out than ever on the interior.

"Consider me impressed," Adam muttered.

"That was the idea," said the brunette woman Adam recognized from her work as a liaison for the Avengers.

"Agent Hill? This thing was your idea?" He said casually. Maria picked up a glass tablet and shook her head. She motioned to the round table off to the side of the main room.

"I can't take the credit. No," she responds.

"Credit," Adam resounds, "this particular venture hasn't even begun yet. Can't really count it as a success." Maria grins ever so slightly.

"Not really a child anymore are we?" Then it was Adam's turn to grin.

"Not at all, but why don't we skip these circles and games and get to the real matter at hand," Adam suggests carefully. He can see through all these facade's. Maria tilts her head slightly and hums.

"Interesting.. So, the seven candidates have already been contacted, S.H.I.E.L.D will be contacting them in person to-"

"No," Adam said over her, Maria looked incredulous, "a bunch of suits approaching nervous, insecure, scared kids won't go over well. It would be better if someone more relate able reached out to them."

"You mean you, correct?" Maria said with an unreadable tone. Adam nodded and stood his ground with his new found confidence. "This isn't procedure."

"Neither were the Avengers," Adam added, "and that was one of S.H.I.E.L.D's greatest success'. Let's not waste time with this because I can clearly see my name on the top of that list," Adam says pointing to the glass pad in Maria's hands, "and if you want anything from me except for trouble I will get my way on this particular one."

"Are you threatening me, Mr. Foster?" Maria asked with a rough edge to her voice.

"Of course not," Adam said with a smirk as he leaned back in his chair. Maria hummed and slid the tablet across the table to him.

"Then by all means. On this particular one, but that's it."

"We'll see," Adam shot back as he picked up the glass tablet, eyes trained on the various virtual files.

Maria Hill, instead of being angry and him, looking very curious. There was something oddly different about Adam these days. Maybe it was just maturity from age. No there was something else. A strange kind of peace or understanding. Maria wasn't sure if Adam could forget so easily about what the other, public, governmental S.H.I.E.L.D put him up to.

"These..." Adam began, interrupting Maria's various, in-depth thoughts, "These kids are all in High School."

"Correct," Maria answered with a gentle nod. She couldn't tell whether Adam was appalled or agreed. His expression stayed oddly impartial from a kid who used to show everything on his face and wear his heart on his sleeve.

"I was just expecting these potential candidates would be closer to my age."

"They won't be considered mission ready for years. It's a six year project," Maria answered simply. Adam paused for a moment and then nodded.

"What's the lie you're telling this time?"

"Excuse me?" Maria questioned, quirking an eyebrow and expecting an argument. She was even more surprised with the young man when one never came.

"I meant the story that I'm expected to tell their parent's. From these files, I doubt some of them have the mentality to understand this stuff as much as their kids might."

"Really?" Maria says dryly.

"Meta-Humans," Adam began gently, careful to explain it all, "well, the emotional baggage that comes with having, controlling and hiding powers. You have to have had a some degree of mental toughness to make it through High School with all that."

"I see," Maria said, leaning back in her chair, finally feeling that no sudden tension would sneak up into the conversation or situation. It all, almost strangely, seemed very relaxed. "I suppose that would make sense since various cases and studies show that the strongest manifestation of enhanced abilities are usually found in teenagers." Adam hummed shortly in short addition to the conversation.

"So it's settled then," he said a moment later.

"So it is," Maria said standing up and holding her hand out for Adam to shake, "welcome to the real S.H.I.E.L.D, Mr. Foster. They way it's suppose to be." Adam took her extended hand and smiled shortly, but it was so easy to force.

* * *

 _These codes, the shields. They couldn't possibly be offline and without any trace of anything? It was just... too strange, too random. The humanoid pondered this for quite a while. It should have been very alarming, but yet he didn't sense an immediate threat._

 _"Humanity will fall," the other assured, "I said it from the start."_

 _"No, you're wrong," the Vision persists again. He knows the other laughs at him._

 _"You've become blind. You're just like them." Vision ignores him as instead continues to contemplate. "How is this? Like them you're lost."_

 _"Lost," Vision resounds, "a subjective term. They're not a lost cause they've just lost...hope." The other was then struck with sickening amusement._

 _"The Avengers. Voted down for good measure._

 _"So says you," Vision protests, "you only could ever envision them gone. You never once looked to the another path. This can work; what S.H.I.E.L.D has."_

 _"But will it?"_

 _"Bringing people like this together worked before," Vision said, looking towards the old A insignia._

 _"Once before," the other added lowly._

 _"And you would attempt to find some way to stop me?" Vision very nearly challenges._

 _"Oh no," the other declares with wicked amusement and raped attention, "I contend to watch you destroy yourself.. and this world." Vision let's out a genuine grin as he arises from his seat. He brushes his hand over the silver A._

 _"Time will tell."_

 _ **~Episode Ending~**_


	5. Episode 2 (Unknown Intentions)

_It seems harmless enough. Something fun that seems oh so very_ _ **innocent**_ _at the time can become a nightmare if you even blink._

* * *

"Whose first?" Adam asks again once on the S.H.I.E.L.D jet. Sharon Carter-Rogers, the temporary liaison agent for the initiation process, turned her gaze to Adam since recently her back was to him. She brandished a clear glass tablet, seemingly from nowhere, but Adam swore they had them everywhere.

"Adeline and Jeremy-Pietro Maximoff," Sharon began as Adam pulled up the various files on the siblings, "Their mother was mentally altered as a young adult and in turn that changed her two children." Adam nodded, very pleased with her just pure grace towards gifted people, but then again, she did have a gifted husband and child.

"Will your son be joining us, Miss Rogers?" Adam asks simply. Adam notices Sharon's next breath is shaky before she answers.

"Yes, I think so," is all she says. It's quite obvious that she's nervous, at least to Adam. He need's to do something, say something to try and allay her fears.

"It's a great opportunity for him. I've heard only good things thus far. He's talented, I suspect he'll be a great role model for the other kids." Sharon smiles lightly at the thought. Then she smiles at Adam for his warming gesture.

"Thank you," she says quickly before moving to the front to ask the pilot of the rest of the duration of their flight.

* * *

"Come on, Jay, we've got to hurry," Adeline presses. JP has already gotten most of their things together. They both only have one bag each, but it's enough. Adeline checks behind the curtain of their room to see that the coast is clear. She then turns back to JP. "You ready yet?"

"Yeah," JP answers simply as he grabs the two different bags. Adeline decides it might be good to check one more time see if everything is clear. She peeks her head out, but this time it collides with a person. A very angry person.

"And just where exactly do you think you're going?" The show leader, John, questions harshly.

"Let us go," Adeline says, trying not to let her voice falter or quiver. John snorts and shakes his head.

"With all you two brats still owe me?" He says with a sickeningly amused grin, "I pulled your sorry asses off of the streets when your poor mother dearest passed."

"She's not dead," JP snapped. He really didn't like this guy. Especially with his inappropriate intentions towards Adeline. John rolled his eyes.

"Oh right, she's just sick. Taking a break, eh? Then why hasn't she been back in the last three years?"

"Stop it, John!" Adeline hisses as she can only imagine JP's shattered expression. Beyond her own will objects in the room shake and turn. John's smirk only widens with sick excitement.

"You two freaks couldn't manage without me. Without the show and you know it. So why don't you play nice and put your damn costume on," John suggests as he tugs at Adeline's shirt, instantly making her pull back, wide-eyed.

"Hey!" JP shouts as he catches a glimpse. John pays him no mind as he grabs Adeline's wrists.

"Come on, baby, you dance for everyone else you owe me enough to give me a private sample." Adeline shoves him off as hard as she can manage and in response John hits her across the face. Adeline falls and JP, also against his will, makes lights in the room flicker violently and shatter, some of the hot glass cutting John. He hisses with the burning pain.

"You're going to regret this, kid!" He snaps coldly, "after showtime you're gonna get it! Can't risk marking up the faces of my stars just yet." With that he walked back out. Adeline swiped her hand up to wipe up her tears. JP is still very angry and his powers are going to disarray. JP had many powers, maybe more so than Adeline, yet neither of the siblings could understand them.

"Oo garacna," JP cursed, unintentionally making the lights in the room still flicker and even shatter.

"Hey!"Adeline said getting up and just avoiding hot glass."It's okay.. Jay, we're gonna be okay. I promise you and you know I don't break my promises." Slowly the strange manipulation of objects in the room stop and JP calms down, he's not sure whether that's with or without Adeline's mental influence on him, but either way it was working. "We'll find a way to get out so don't stress." And with that last line JP knows Adeline is using her powers to chill him out. He wishes sometimes she would just let him rage a seethe and let him protect her instead of it being always the other way around.

"We keep saying that," JP says, still not happy even with Adeline suppressing his negativity.

"We will get out. I promise, Jay."

* * *

"They work for a traveling circus?" Adam questions, outside the big, colorful, lively structure that is housing the show.

"More like a traveling act. It's not like a circus per say," Sharon explained, acting casual and speaking lowly since they are in a public place with people streaming by to get into the show.

"Why are they here?" Adam asks with slight suspicion on the subject.

"Their mother went comatose s few years ago. Sokovia hasn't yet recovered from the A.I crisis, so they slipped through the foster system..."

"So they were on the streets," Adam said lowly and sadly. It struck a nerve right tight in his chest. His heart definitely went out to these kids. They were in a much less than ideal situation and it certainly wasn't fair. The housing at S.H.I.E.L.D would actually be good for them. It was almost odd for Adam to think that S.H.I.E.L.D could be good for anyone. Adam kept trying to remind himself that this was in fact a different S.H.I.E.L.D. But some bitter memories remained... but if he could help these kids he would, regardless of S.H.I.E.L.D.

"It's about to start. I'll watch the entrance and you try to locate the kids and head backstage," Sharon said and Adam had absolutely no trouble with it. Sharon Rogers was the kind of woman who seemed to understand the kind of command or control Adam was trying to establish. She understood that Adam wasn't after power in S.H.I.E.L.D ranks, he just wanted to try and establish that he is in charge of this group and these kids on the grounds that he can understand them best. Sharon herself could respect that.

Adam took his seat for the show. It was unusually impressive. Without Sharon even informing Adam through the com link in his ear of the identity of the two children, Adam already knew exactly who they were. He could tell they were using their powers, it was obvious.

A particular act Adam stayed very focused was an acrobatic, tightrope act. She couldn't have been more than 16 and the things she was pulling off was unprecedented and very eye catching. At least for Adam. Every time the girl, Adeline, Adam thought her name was; anytime she would almost fall white lights would flicker from her fingertips and she would grab back on as if the rope moved to her. Very convenient.

Next was a boy Adam noticed. But not in the show. He was in the stands, sneaking underneath the high benches and pick-pocketing the participants. He was impossibly quiet. When people were originally filing into the show all you could hear was creaking from the cheap, rotting wood. The silver haired kid neared Adam, though the half-god of course knew he was there. When the kid moved to snatch his wallet Adam zapped his hands with a light current of electricity. The kid reeled back, probably more from surprise than anything else. Adam grasped the kids wrist as he almost fell onto several people; that would have caused a fuss.

"Let me go!" He whispered in a frantic tone "you have to let me go!"

"I'm not going to hurt you," says Adam calmly as he lets go. The kids silvery eyes stay trained on Adam for a moment before he see's someone at the exit beckoning him. The kids dashes passed the people in the stands, not caring if he knocks them over or not. Adam follows, albeit, in a less frantic manner. People glance to them or watch them for a moment, but no longer than that as it might be expected for people to dash out of here and be sick with the damn carnival food. The unknown man moves far away from the main tent. Adam, once again, takes the kids wrist

"What's your problem?! Get off!"

"What's going on here?" Adam asks in a demanding, yet non-harsh tone.

"Nothing," the kids lies so bad Adam nearly laughs. He doesn't with the only factor of his silence being the kids near panicked expression. There's a loud voice that goes over the intercom in the tent, talking about an a big, exciting, unusual finally. Adam let's go and moves back to the tent.

"Stay there, kid." Glancing inside Adam can see the man who is most likely the ring master standing a tops a tall stage along with the acrobat, contortionist performing from before. Other performers place silver rings, that actually look like hula-hoops around her, at her feet. White lights come about them and the spin around her on their own as she her hands rose up and shimmered. People cheer and scream as the white lights expands, but as it touches each one of them their expressions go black as they open their wallets or check books and throw various currency onto the stage. Adam is in complete shock.

She- that young girl- she's doing that right now.

The girls shrieks and it cuts through Adam they way it sounds. The horror in it all. Adam had to fight everything inside himself to stand still and wait. And damn it all it sucked.

When the girl was tired, sweating, shaky she started to stop, trying to lower her arms. That was then something even weirder happened. The ringmaster tsked and shook his head as his black cane liquefied and bound both of her hands forwards like chains. The girl screamed more as she tried to pull her hands away. She must have pulled back whatever manipulation she had over the crowd. The ringmaster sighed. The mysterious chains binding the poor girl vilted and then became a solid cane in the man's hand. He whipped the silver haired child in the side with the cane. she fell, grasping her side. The ringmaster stepped forward, positioning himself in front of the injured performer, holding his arms out wide he addressed the confused crowd.

"Thank you for participating, my dears. Enjoy your night," he said as he adjourned back stage while other workers for the show escorted the very confused people out, leaving the girl to suffer on stage and no one paid her any mind. No one, but Adam.

J.P Was worried by now. Well, that actually was an understatement. Adeline wasn't back yet and that meant bad news. Real bad news. He actually felt like he was gonna be sick until he heard someone walk inside their room. J.P whipped around, praying that he saw Adeline. And he does, only there's someone with her.

"You," J.P only states numbly. Adam nods, closing his eyes for a moment. Adeline moves to sit down quickly. "What is?-"

"He's with them," Adeline states, cryptically, plaguing her younger brother with confusion. "S.H.I.E.L.D."

"Well, you could have been here yesterday," J.P all but snapped which only earned his a slap on the shoulder from hopes that her hot-headed brother won't ruin this for them, she's surprised at the man's casual demeanor. Adam looked down and hummed once.

"And I should have been. That was my first mistake." The siblings glance at each other once.

"..It's okay.." J.P mutters.

"S.H.I.E.L.D tells me you were going to meet up with us, what happened?" Adam asked, sounding so sympathetic and Adeline knew she liked this man already, though she did not have good experience with men in general.

"Our debt with the Ringmaster," Adeline explains after a bout of silence ensues. So it's that circus story, Adam comically thinks, but he keeps it well to himself.

"It's fixable," Adam said casually. Both of the siblings shook their head in time.

"It's more than money.."

"Well, that seems to be all he wanted during the show," Adam shot back, but not cruelly, just factually. "If I could let you both out of this little deal, would you still come with me?" The siblings looked at each other again, seemingly communicating silently by expression, which Adam found very amusing.

"Of course," Adeline concluded finally, "but be careful, it will not be easy." Adam began to walk out, as his back was turned to them they missed the knowing smirk.

* * *

"So, here it is," said Adam, showing the siblings to the chrome, futuristic looking building made just for them at Adam's digression. The two kids looked in amazement. It was also, in fact, the first time Adam had ever seen it as well.

The main room was circular based. The ceiling was that way which gave that particular shape it's added effect. There were a silver-chrome rims that looped around it separately and the middle of it was all plexi-glass. The furniture was mainly red, blue and gold and all of the little wood that was in the room was dark. There was a kitchen that was fully stocked to the right of the large space, all stainless steal appliances of course. The living area was slightly raised and has a few steps up to it with glass half walls surrounding that particular area. There was a small study or computer lab open on the back left of the huge room. There was a hall to the upper left that led to 20 different bedrooms. Pool outside along with various sporting fields scattered outside. Training facility's and medical bay were stationed on the sub-levels.

"This is amazing," Adeline breathed as she looked around. J.P did a full 360 survey of the space.

"You like it, kid?" Adam asked as he went to get a drink, then decided that it might not be appropriate right at the moment.

"It's perfect!" J.P said rather loudly as he jumped up and landed on the gold colored sectional sofa. Adam grinned, pleased enough with himself for today.

"You two earned it," Adam said, rummaging through the fridge, settling for a soda instead.

"And you earned this back," J.P says, pausing a moment from looking about everything, to pull Adam's wallet out from his own back pocket. Adam looks completely stunned.

"How did you?-" Adam doesn't finish, he laughs as it's thrown back to him, not sure he really want's to know. "It feels about 40$ lighter." J.P just stuff his hands into his hoodie pockets and shrugs nonchalantly.

"Ya know we sent those to you both. You were suppose to find them. And you came to S.H.I.E.L.D that's more than enough for praise," Adam says, resuming his previous conversation with Adeline.

"What's so wrong with S.H.I.E.L.D?" Adeline asks warily. Adam carefully thinks over his answer before firing his mouth.

"It's just considered a bit unorthodox," he finally decides, wanting to stay on good terms with the agency thus far.

"Aren't we all?" Adeline answers as she moves a soda can into her own hand with white wisps traveling around it. Adam just leans on the counter and shrugs.

"This is So much better than the lodging at the circus," J.P cuts in as he eyes a huge flat-screen.

"You bet," Adeline agreed, sitting down a bit more gracefully than her brother. "I can't thank you enough, Agent Foster. How did you manage to get us out of there?" Adam said nothing as he took a sip of his, non-alcoholic, beverage and gave them a wink, concealing more.

 _"Ha!" The RingMaster laughed wildly "let got of my stars? You've got to be joking!"_

 _"Oh, I'm quite serious," Adam says, his tone still casual for the time being as he moves around the man's tent._

 _"Look, I see where you're coming from," Adam instantly felt that lie. Adam doubted that this man had worked an honest day in his life. Just a bugging hunch. "but as a business man, I can't let someone with a debt as big as theirs walk away. Try to see it from my perspective."_

 _"Oh, I've heard your sales pitch. Saw it in action. All I can see from your perspective is greed, lies and a giant stick up your ass." The RingMaster snarls and grabs his cane._

 _"Oh lookie here, we've got ourselves a hero, huh? Oh joy," he says, smirking menacingly, "I'm going to enjoy this," he says as he raises his cane, it vilts and wraps itself around Adam right wrist, forming like a chain and tethering him to the floor, "consider your proposal denied." He cackled and laughed until her heard a snap! The RingMaster looked up to see the cane chains broken on the floor, the shadowed spell smoking on the floor._

 _"You call that magic?" Adam challenges, "no wonder you make a young girl do all the hard work for you. You've got nothing."_

 _"Oh, you want magic?!" He yells and he cane turns to blades and fly at Adam. Adam sighs and lifts his hand up and the cane reverts to nothing on the floor._

 _"Throwing knives at a circus...how original," Adam taunts as he steps forward. "You're just a party magician at best." Adam pounds his fist down on the RingMaster's head before he can utter a word, his neck snapped and the top of his skull cracked open.. "Consider your proposal for bullshit denied."_

"Anyways," Adeline says after a bit of silence, "it's amazing what you did. We can't thank you enough."

"Don't worry about it," Adam adds with a kind, genuine smile. "Anything you need S.H.I.E.L.D will buy for you. Expenses were in the contract. God only knows I can't pay for everything as a student," Adam says, although he perfectly can pay for everything. Long story short years ago Adam and his mother were struggling very very badly and could hardly make ends meat. And by hardly Adam meant not at all. So Adam pleaded to the Asgardian's for help. For Anything. And so they wrote a sigh up in the sky; numbers to be exact. Lottery numbers. So basically it was all like "hey guys, can ya help me out?" and the Asgardians replied with "sure! Here's 20 million in Midguardian currency!" So the moral of this story is Adam wanted S.H.I.E.L.D to suffer a bit and pay their dues for all the damages that can and will definitely happen. Big time. When you have a octagon house full of meta-humans, shit will go down. That much was for certain.

Later Maria Hill introduces herself to Adeline and JP. She goes over some of the ground rules then shows them to their new rooms, which they both thoroughly enjoy. Adam decides to retire in the observatory at the top of the octagon S.H.I.E.L.D house. There's something about being close to the sky and stars that always put him at ease and calmed him down. Adam looked through the shaped panels of the glass globe. He pushes open one of the panels that act like flaps in the sense that they push open slightly. He breathes in the fresh, night air. He leans part way out the window. His hand subconsciously goes to the breast pocket of his jacket. He feels at the patterned, metallic, organic globe inside the thick leather.

"Two down, Lilly," Adam whispers lightly into the night.


	6. Episode 3 (Persuasive Rescue Pt 1)

_It's not temptation and it's not force. It's a clever trick to convince a gullible human mind into doing_ _ **exactly**_ _what you want them to and_ _ **exactly**_ _what they fought against._

* * *

Adeline woke up that morning forgetting where she was at first. It took her a while to remember all the events of last week. Even with all the time that had passed, she still had a hard time believe that all of this was actually real and for her.

Adeline got up and dressed herself in a white tank top and grey jeans. She tended to wear a lot of white since it drew attention away from her silver hair.

So did J.P for that matter. Not that Adeline didn't like the silver, but telling people it was natural? Then it made her seem weird. Although she could just lie.

While Adeline was still in her room, J.P was already up to no good borrowing from Adam again. It had almost become a daily thing and J.P would poke fun about it, but it just goes to show that J.P knew Adam was a good guy; enough to joke about it. At least that meant the siblings were getting comfortable and that's just how Adam wanted it to be.

"What'll it be today?" J.P asked after he subtly slipped Adam's wallet back into place.

"Whatever you-" Adam stopped when his phone rang. He picked it up and without even answering could see the S.H.I.E.L.D logo float across the plexi-glass screen. "Someone else just answered the call out..." Adam mused as he opened the file.

"Another, um..., person like us?" Adeline stammered through her question as she walked into the room.

"Meta-human," Adam corrected as he went through the file. "Alice Belova," he read aloud so Adeline and J.P could have some insight on who their new potential teammate and roommate was going to be. "16 years old and a high school student all the way from Russia, considered to be the Black Widow match up."

"Sweet," J.P said, excited on the prospect of crazy kid Avengers. Or whatever S.H.I.E.L.D was calling them now.

"So are you heading to Russia then?" Adeline asked, sitting down on the bar stool seated next to the kitchen island that J.P was also sitting at and Adam was leaning on.

"Have to," Adam said with a shrug and he slipped his phone back into his pocket and walked to get his jacket out of a closet near the front entrance. He hit the button and the silver doors slid open revealing the contents of a mostly empty closet since Adam had only temporarily been staying here to accommodate the siblings and make sure all their needs were well taken care of since Maria Hill claimed that she was still 'trying to find an Agent willing to supervise them'. All that meant to Adam was that all those Agent's were scared and nervous around a few kids, though Maria still insisted it was because their staff was still so spread thin from splitting with the public, governmental S.H.I.E.L.D, however Adam was still skeptical on her reasoning. "She answered us so now I have to answer her." Adam slipped his jacket on. "You have my number right in case you need anything?" Adeline laughed.

"We're not 5. We'll be fine," she said wryly with a small laugh still. Adam rolled his eyes and left after that exchange.

* * *

Adam walked with Agent Sharon Rogers through the busy, cold streets of Moscow. "You know, I do think moving from New York to Russia in a matter of hours is a world record. How long has S.H.I.E.L.D had technology like that up their sleeve?"

"Not too long. Maybe a few years," Sharon answered curtly. Adam nodded. From everyone out of S.H.I.E.L.D he liked and respected Sharon the most.

"Where were the coordinates from the call out pinpointed at?" Adam questioned and that literally seemed like all he did when they were out on initiation missions like this.

"A small, privately owned garage on the far east side of the city," Sharon said, pulling out her GPS map on her S.H.I.E.L.D phone. Adam glanced at it. Thank goodness it wasn't too far. Adam hated the cold. Hate was a strong word, but it was pretty well true. His version of cold was 60° Fahrenheit his version of nice was 85° and his version of hot was about 110°. Needless to say, he liked it boiling hot and withered in the cold. "You doing alright there?" Sharon said amused when she saw Adam shiver for what seemed like the millionth time.

"Yeah," he muttered, hunched over a bit from the freezing wind. Sharon laughed airily and lightly.

"You look a little blue. Can't handle a little snow, Foster?" Adam sighed and frowned at Sharon's amused giggling.

"I don't know if you know this, but I draw a majority of my abilities from the sun and have you seen the cloud cover out here? Now you know how to shut me off, go put that on your S.H.I.E.L.D forums."Instead of Sharon acting offended by Adam's rude remarks she just resumes laughing again.

"And apparently the cloud cover weighs down on your mood. Hang on there hot shot we're almost there." Adam rolled his eyes again.

Not too soon after did Adam and Sharon reach their destination, a small, unkempt, yet well structured garage. There was only a few people working there and none of the busy workers paid them much mind anyways. Eventually a teenage girl with scarlet hair glanced over at them. She removed her goggles and got up from the concrete, walking over to them.

"Ты их, агенты S.H.I.E.L.D?" She says with an almost giddy grin on her face. She's a skinny, yet fit girl wearing a black belly shirt and torn black jeans. Her hair is partially pulled back and her blue eyes practically shine underneath the black shadowed eye make-up.

"Um.. all I got out of that was S.H.I.E.L.D," Adam said lowly to Sharon. Sharon smiles and responds to the girl anyways.

"Да, это приятно встретиться с вами, Элис Белова." Adam throws his hands up and shakes his head.

"And that I understood none of," he muttered. Sharon laughs and Adam seriously feels like a young kid again right now with the lack of comprehension. Why did he think he could get by on this mission without knowing a single word in Russian? Was this going to be a problem later on if this girl didn't know any English?

"She just asked if we were S.H.I.E.L.D," Sharon explains, "and I confirmed that we were." Adam nods shortly. "Я агент Sharon Rogers, это агент Adam Foster," Sharon says introducing them.

"Can you ask her if she knows any English?" Adam says dryly, actually feeling left out of these exchanges.

"Знаете ли вы совер-"

"Yes," the girl answers before Sharon is even finished asking. The girl is smirking and Adam is certain that it's directed at him. "Some anyways." Her accent is very thick, but still mainly understandable.

"Fantastic," Sharon says, knowing that them both speaking in the non-native language may help to lower the chance of people knowing what they're really discussing. "May we speak to your parent or guardian?"

"Um..." Alice stutters for a moment, "oh, yes," she says after a moment, finding the words. Maybe English isn't a sold second language for her, though she seems to manage decently. "Follow me." Adam and Sharon follow the girl back far behind the garage to a small house still on the garage's property. Alice and her mother probably both lived and worked there, though the only thing on Adam's mind really was how the hell Alice wasn't freezing right now in that outfit; no jacket.

"Мама," Alice calls into the house as soon as she opens the door. "агента здесь из школы!" Not a moment later does a woman with blonde hair and blue eyes- yet a much different blue than Alice's- meet them. In fact, she doesn't really look at all like Alice, Adam thinks. Except for general feminism, they don't seem to have any other psychical features in common.

Adam looks to Sharon who is oddly silent and seems to have lost her words all of the sudden; out of character for her.

"Agent Carter," says the woman who Adam assumes is Alice's mother listed in the files as, Yelena Belova, says finally in a Russian accent much more understandable than Alice's. The next thing Adam notices is that this woman called Sharon by her maiden name. That meant History and it was a bit unsettling with Sharon's unusual silence.

"Miss Belova," Sharon greets with the same hidden bitterness as Yelena graced them with, but neither Adam nor Alice failed to see it. There was something pretty bitter and big between them.

"The adults will talk, yes?" Yelena says, eyeing Adam for a second and he lips pull sideways as she looks him over in contemplation. Though after a few more seconds her expression changes to mildly unimpressed. Yelena and Sharon walk back to the room Yelena was previously in, leaving Alice and Adam alone; baffled by the two women's strange exchange.

"So.." Adam begins, mainly because the silence is deafening and he's trying to impress her and get her on-board anyways, "is this all a surprise for you?" The ginger shook her head.

"Нет- I mean no. I knew I was different when I was young. So did мама." Adam hummed in subtle approval.

"Interesting. What is it you do?"

"I am not one for long explanation's, агент Foster," the girl says as flicks a light on in the dark, dim room.

"Oh really?" Adam says, resigning himself to playing along in this little game she's had him enter. "What do you suggest?"

"вызов. Test me..?" She says with some curiosity. On him?

"I'll be just as happy to show you what I can do," Adam says as he looks about the small room, "just not in here." The girl flashes a sideways grin and nods.

"хорошо. Let's see then." But they don't get that far.

* * *

"Just flat out _No_?" Adam asks Sharon, incredulous, "did she even consider Alice's reasoning?"

"Not as far as I know," Sharon answers, deflated and quiet now. She and Adam are at a hotel now. In a special room set up in certain hotels for Agent purposes. It's nothing fancy, but Adam suspects there's more to it than meet's the eye, but that's not the issue right now.

"And you didn't try to persuade her?" Adam presses and this time Sharon whips around, very displeased maybe even angered.

"Wasn't that your job last time? Don't pester me about mine!" She snaps harshly and Adam puts his hands up and back off. For now.

"I'm gonna go grab something to eat I'll be back later," he says, grabbing his jacket and taking a moment to just mentally prepare himself for the harsh cold of the streets outside once again that afternoon.

The suns getting real low now and in turn the weather is getting even colder. It's snowing with thick, slow falling flakes and Adam really hates it. Knowing he forgot his gloves he shoves his hands into his pockets, he hears a light crinkling coming from the left pocket. He looks confused as he pulls a small, wrinkled, folded piece of lined paper out.

'встретиться со мной в гараже сегодня в одиннадцать.' It read and too bad Adam didn't know a word in it. He ended up have to take out his phone, take a picture of the note and translate it that was. Damn, he really was going to have to learn some Russian if this pulled through or at least get a translator.

That night at exactly eleven like the note explicitly said Adam found himself once again at the garage, albeit it is was closed and dark now.

"A man actually on time. I am impressed," says Alice. Though Adam can hardly see more than an outline he recognizes her voice through the shadows.

"I might risk myself keeping woman like you waiting; a future Black Widow."

"Let's hope," Alice says back with a bit of uncertainty.

"I assume you have a plan then?" Adam asks as he shivers inside his jacket.

"Да," she affirms as she turns on an outside back light to the garage, "there has been heavy theft with in this shop lately. мама has been furious she cannot catch them."

"Oh I see," Adam interrupts, "I know where you're going with this. You want me to help you catch these guys to butter your Mother up. You really think that'll work?" Alice holds up her hand, now coated in black finger-less gloves.

"Мама whole reason for keeping me here is because she does not think I can handle myself. If I prove that I can that I can, she will have to let me come, or else say she does not trust me and reveal that," Alice explains and Adam shakes his head, laughing slowly in bemusement and amazement.

"Man.." he breathes, "is your superpower being extremely mischievous, kid?"

"Time will tell," she says with a wink. "Just tell me. Do you mean to help me?"

"Of course," Adam answers with less than a moment's hesitation. Alice nods in approval. "Why do you ask? I mean, would I be here if I wasn't?"

"One of my superpowers is to tell when you lie," Alice answers with a smirk. Adam raises an eyebrow. "Well...not really, but call it a unique skill." Adam hums as an answer and uncrosses his arms, hoping to de-thaw a bit from standing still out here so long.

"Let's get moving then."

* * *

Now Adam could cross being on a stakeout off his bucket list. Though sitting for hours in an old, beat up truck that belonged to someone who wanted repairs done in an old musty garage was not so great. Maybe stakeout's weren't as cool as they sounded.

Alice laid back against the torn leather. "черт побери," she cursed lightly as she looked at Adam. "I am sorry." Adam shrugs.

"It's okay."

"I wasted your time," she added while taking her feet of the dashboard.

"Maybe not," Adam whispered. Alice narrowed her eyes in confusion until she heard iron clamor against the concrete floor. Alice looked through the back window of the car to see a mans silhouette. Adam opened the truck door and climbed out quickly as did Alice.

"Пара героев, а?! Ты так глуп, как в прошлом, чтобы попытаться остановить меня!" The man shouted and Adam seriously wishes that he took an extra language in high school now. He didn't think something like that would come back to bite him.

"Назад прочь, вор!" Alice yells back at him and Adam wants to face palm just from confusion. What in god's name are they saying?!

Although it doesn't matter all too much because what happens next sends them both into shock. The man bends back and he's completely morphed into a puff of black smoke. He flies through, knocking Alice down on the way to the other side of the garage.

"What the hell?!" Adam shouts, not really expecting tonight to be a meta-human brawl. The man morphs back to humanly normal and throws a huge iron wrench at Adam. Adam, luckily, is able to create a wind barrier in front of himself to parry the heavy tool. The man laughs, but nods, impressed still.

"Впечатляет. Вы бесчеловечных. Ты ... One of us," he praises, the last part in weak or broken English.

"We're all just human, pal, time to cut your losses."

"Не сегодня ночью," he says before he morphs back to smoke and barrels down at Adam. Adam simply opens his hands to exact a gust of wind to blow the vapor man back and disperse his energy. A broken howl can be heard through the air. Alice moved quickly to the left wall and turned on the air vents to blow him down. However, the vapor man escaped through the grate on the floor. Fleeing fast.

"Черт побери!" Alice screamed angrily through clenched teeth as she kicked the truck, denting it with just the force of her foot.

"Hey!" Adam called, turning around from where the meta-human had been to look back at Alice. "You alright?" Adam can see black, vertical scuff marks on the ground near the car. In the wrong direction. She had just moved that 1100 pound vehicle herself.

"Блядь!" She cried angrily as she looked for something else to beat on, pacing angrily, getting very worked up.

"Hey, just calm down. Alice!" He said then grabbing her shoulders. "Calm down."

"I cannot be stuck here forever!" She cries out.

"You won't be, I swear," Adam promises to the disheveled teenager, "just _calm down_."


	7. Episode 3 (Persuasive Rescue Pt 2)

_**Previously on "Dangerous Games"...**_

 _"Another, um..., person like us?" Adeline stammered through her question as she walked into the room._

 _"Meta-human," Adam corrected as he went through the file. "Alice Belova," he read aloud so Adeline and J.P could have some insight on who their new potential teammate and roommate was going to be. "16 years old and a high school student all the way from Russia, considered to be the Black Widow match up."_

 _"Agent Carter," says the woman who Adam assumes is Alice's mother listed in the files as, Yelena Belova, says finally in a Russian accent much more understandable than Alice's. The next thing Adam notices is that this woman called Sharon by her maiden name. That meant History and it was a bit unsettling with Sharon's unusual silence._

 _"Miss Belova," Sharon greets with the same hidden bitterness as Yelena graced them with, but neither Adam nor Alice failed to see it._

 _"Мама whole reason for keeping me here is because she does not think I can handle myself. If I prove that I can that I can, she will have to let me come, or else say she does not trust me and reveal that," Alice explains and Adam shakes his head, laughing slowly in bemusement and amazement._

 _"Назад прочь, вор!" Alice yells back at him and Adam wants to face palm just from confusion. What in god's name are they saying?!_

 _Although it doesn't matter all too much because what happens next sends them both into shock. The man bends back and he's completely morphed into a puff of black smoke. He flies through, knocking Alice down on the way to the other side of the garage._

 _"What the hell?!" Adam shouts, not really expecting tonight to be a meta-human brawl._

* * *

"I'm sorry," Adam says into the cellphone speaker, which is currently pressed between his shoulder and the side of his head so he can use his hands to get ready for the day even though he feels like a zombie after being out all night. "What exactly happened?"

"Okay," Adeline said over the speaker, breathing out heavily, "point is, I can't get things to stop floating around me! What should I do?!" Adam cringed and the phone nearly fell onto the floor.

"First off just try and calm down... Second, um, try not to let your mind wander, try to stay focused on a few different things through out the day, er, alright?" Adam says leaving the hotel bathroom. He moves to open the curtains of the large window and silently scowls when he see's all of that damned snow.

"Alright... thanks."

"No problem. Call if anything changes," Adam says before he hangs up. He turns up the heat in the room, not caring about running up a bill for it. S.H.I.E.L.D would just pay for it all anyways, so why bother stressing about it?

"You're, uh, actually pretty good with those kids, ya know," Sharon says as she walks back into the room with some breakfast.

"I've kinda had to be lately. Sink or swim, right?"

"Right," Sharon agree's before the two agent's are thrown back into an awkward silence. Things were not at all like yesterday.

"What happened to you yesterday, Miss Rogers?" Sharon did't answer right away. She stayed still staring ahead. Adam supposed that hotel must have been pretty interesting then. About a minute later Sharon pulled out her plexi-glass phone and pulled up a file, she turned the phone for Adam to see.

"Yelena Belova. Expert Mercenary, Assassin and former adversary for both Hydra and certain Soviet espionage known as the Red Room."

"I take it that's something bad then," Adam says as Sharon hands him the phone and he takes it, scrolling through the virtual files. Sharon nods and crosses her arms.

"Some of the worst. Members of the 107th back in WWII, the Howling Commando's, were leveled by one ten year old girl from the Red Room back in 1948," Sharon explains. Adam taps his finger against his chin, thinking about all of this.

"You and Miss Belova were on opposing sides before, weren't you?" Adam says and it's hardly a question and more of a statement or string of words. Sharon's sighs.

"She was one of the Red Room's very best. And I do mean that when I saw she was lethal, one woman army, slaughtered people. Some people under governmental protection back when S.H.I.E.L.D still was involved with politics ... She came to S.H.I.E.L.D HQ one day. Gave the biggest tip of information S.H.I.E.L.D had ever seen and so the Director granted her amnesty."

"Amnesty? With charges in mass murder and various assassinations? That must have been some damn good information," Adam mused, watching Sharon for any clues since he was pretty sure she was here when this particular event took place.

"I think they may have taken pity on her in all honesty... She was on the run and hurt and pregnant so they let her go." Adam says nothing after this. He just waits. Sharon sighs again, deflating a little and she sits down on a bed. "I know I could have tried harder to get Belova on board, gotten Alice. That girls has nothing to do with what her Mother did and I know that. I just wish I would have knew that then."

"Well, we're not done yet," Adam says as he hands Sharon back her phone and pulls out his own. "You think you can help me I.D a ghost? A black _Vapory_ ghost?" Sharon expression fills with utter confusion as she takes the phone and stares at the picture and images.

* * *

"Dimitri Akim," Adam says softly and quietly to Alice as he slips her the paper file. She takes it and stains grease on the manila folder. "Convicted 9 years ago for tampering with American transportation equipment. Using it to kill dozens of people. The files don't go into detail, but I doubt we'd want to read that anyways." Alice shuffles the different papers about, reading the little that's there.

"What about his powers?" She asks, her accent seeming even thicker to Adam today from the exhaustion.

"Whatever device he used explode, collapsing in on itself and S.H.I.E.L.D scientist's speculate one of these things must have been a chain reaction to cause them. He becomes a shaded, dark matter based vapor, only seen morphing for short periods of time." Alice nods and closes the folder, handing the grease stained pages back to Adam and she moves her goggles back on correctly and off her forehead.

"If he is shaded then we may counter him," Alice adds as she picks up a drill.

"Agreed," says Adam, slipping the folder back into his bag.

"белый свет," Alice breathes softly.

"Come again?" Adam says, so annoyed with this. He already tried looking up spells in his Asgardian Grimoire on comprehension on other languages and there was nothing on Russian!

"White light," Alice said, translating herself and giving Adam a small grin, seeing the frustration in his eyes. "Who really ventures to Russia and knows no Russian?" She says out loud, her grin changing to a smirk. Adam huffs, mildly annoyed and Alice snickers.

"Just meet back here tonight, okay?"

"Да," Alice says, smirking to herself again, just imagining the frustrated and annoyed look on Adam's face without moving her eyes away from the car she was working on.

* * *

"мама, мы собираемся идти?" Alice asked as she came back to her and her mother's small house.

"Where were you last night?" Yelena asks, changing the languages on Alice. Making her harder for deception when you're speaking language you only half-know.

"Я был просто-"

"Humor me, dear," Yelena cuts in, holding her hand up. English was like the truthful language between them which Yelena though was ironic since America was practically built on deception and greed, or at least that was her current understanding of it.

"At the shop," Alice answers. Not a lie, but certainly not the whole truth. Yelena crosses her arms and leans sideways against the wall.

"Were you out with that man?" No answer. "Alice Natalia Belova." _Awe crap, middle name,_ Alice says mentally.

"No," is all Alice says. Just plain and simple. Lies. Yelena walks forward towards Alice, her arms uncrossed and her expression upset and disappointing. She swiftly slaps Alice across the face. Alice's own pale hand flies to her cheek and stares up at her mother with wide blue eyes.

"Do you lie to me?" She says, more upset than angry. "Why did you go to see him?" Alice says nothing.

"Does it even matter, мама? Are you angry because I lied or did not tell you? Would you have let me go?-"

"What did you say to him?" Yelena presses on, slightly more bitter now. "If S.H.I.E.L.D already has suspicions on what you can do it's bad news. But if you told him or showed him anything they will never leave you alone again. And they will hunt you and follow you forever. You will be a puppet and I will lose you!" Yelena informs/yells at her daughter. Alice forces her expression to stay neutral. Fear is a weakness; her mother always said. "I will ask again. What did you say to him."

"That I was sorry," Alice says as she straitens her shoulders and puts her hands on her hips, hoping to display some confidence, "I told him that I was sorry that I could not come with him."

"That is all?" Yelena asks and Alice hopes that she can't see through her facade again. Alice breathes in deep.

"...Yes." Yelena nods and the way she seems to buy it releases so much of the tension in the house and between them. Yelena slowly wraps her arms around Alice.

* * *

Adam waits for Alice late that night around the back of the garage, their agreed upon meeting spot. It was cold a windy outside and Alice was way late which didn't make Adam at all happy. Of course he had no idea that Alice was practically on house arrest.

Alice sat at her desk, writing down an email to explain to her coach why she wasn't at her gymnastic's meet today. Of course, it was a completely false explanation. Her coach didn't need to know about her and her mother's argument at least not the finer details of said argument. She taps the screen with her mouse to send the email and just after her screen goes fuzzy.

"Черт сигнал," Alice mutters as she moves the mouse around only to find that the entire PC is frozen. She grumbles, closing the laptop and pushing herself back in her chair. She leans back, tired from that day and the night before. Next the light bulb in Alice's desk lamp goes out, she sighs as she's left in the darkness. She got up from her wooden chair and she puts her hand inside the lamp to grab the light bulb before remember that it's still burning hot. Alice whips her hand back and shakes it.

"Ожог," a familiar yet unwelcome voice speaks into the darkness, "но так мало, так раздражает, да?"

"Dimitri Akim," Alice says and she see's shadowed feet right under the crack of her door.

"да," he confirms which makes Alice very nervous, "но я предпочитаю черный пар." Then black vapor starts to worm it's way through the crack in Alice's door. Moving fast. Alice throws open her window and jumps out without any hesitation. She lands on the concrete and tears open the fabric at her knee's of her pajama pants. She get's up quickly as the vapor floats and falls out her bedroom window after her. Alice could definitely hold her own. That was for sure, but how can you fight something you can't touch? That's what Alice had to find out and fast. She makes a dash for the garage, moving there so quick it should be nearly impossible. The vapor pours in through the vent and as soon ad Alice is pretty sure it's all there, she flicks on a UV light they have off to the side for examining parts. Dimitri howls in his shadowed form. He jolts up and breaks the light then bolts forward at Alice. Alice flips backwards over a car and flips the hood up to blow some of the vapor to the left of her before running out of the garage. The lights outside are all turned out except for one very far away so Alice is left in darkness and can't see where she's going. She cuts herself on a stray piece of metal out around back and falls, slicing a part of her leg leaving a sizable cut. The vapor moves outside, closing in on Alice and just as it's very nearly right on top of her it's forced back by, and Alice could still hardly believe it, a bolt of white lightning. The vapor howls again and reels back only to be thrown again by another bolt of lightning, soon it surrounds him. Adam walks into the light that the energy bolts give off. His hands are held out in front of him, but low. His palms are open wide and lightning surrounds them, coursing about them like an endless loop and in turn it seems lightning pours out of the sky, trapping Dimitri Akim. Dimitri yells angrily and morphs back to his regular form, weakened. Adam highers his hands and forces them back down with one swift movement and the lightning crashes in on itself, collapsing on the man. Turning him to black smoldering ash and smoke. Adam leans against the outside garage wall, breathing pretty hard.

"Are you alright?" Alice asks and she pushes herself up onto her feet.

"I think I should be asking you that question," Adam says back, marginally out of breath. Alice crosses her arms, starring Adam down, concerned. "I haven't really used my powers like that in a long time..." he paused to catch his breath again, "it's... it's been a while." The ginger nods and looks down at her feet.

"So..." Alice says after a long silence, "I guess that's what you meant when before. You're powers aren't really indoor friendly, huh?" Adam laughs airily and shrugs.

"I guess you could say that."

"Can we go now?" Alice asks after, shivering since she'd left her house in nothing but silky light pajama's that were now torn. She examines the cut on her lower left leg.

"да," Adam says and nods once. Alice quirks an eyebrow, grinning amused. "What?" Adam says with a wink, "I'm learning."

* * *

"So that's how Belova reacted?" Sharon asks the next morning as her and Adam are once again packed up and are readying the S.H.I.E.L.D quin-jet. Adam nodded and sighs.

"She viewed it as putting Alice in more danger than helping and who knows, maybe she's right." Sharon pauses from where she was uncovering one of the rotor's.

"Don't say that," Sharon says as she pulls that large vinyl cover off, "you stopped a thief and mass murdered."

"Let's hope he's enjoying his lovely new cell in the fridge," Adam says with a small smirk. Dimitri reformed pretty fast, but didn't have enough energy or will after his fight with Alice and Adam to dare go up against them again. Alice... Adam frowned. He wasn't able to get Yelena to let Alice go with them despite all his efforts it just wasn't enough.

"All set up," Sharon says as the back hatch to the quin-jet swings down, "let's get a move on-"

"Подождите!" A frantic, female voice calls out from behind the two agent's.

"Alice?" Sharon asks, surprised as the girl runs up to them quicker that seemingly possible with a bag in hand. "What are you doing here?"

"мама changed her mind last minute. She said I could travel with you New York city," Alice says happily, not even at all short of breath from her long run. Sharon and Adam look at each other, Adam's grinning wide.

"Welcome to the team, kid," Adam says as he escorts Alice inside the high tech jet, "let's get moving." Sharon moves to the front of the jet to pilot the thing. Alice and Adam sit down in the back.

"This is amazing," Alice breathes, taking in everything as her blue eyes dart around everywhere. Adam smiles and leans back.

"Ya like it?" Alice nods and continues to look about. Adam closes his eyes, finally ready for some rest... that's when his S.H.I.E.L.D phones goes off. Adam grumbles as it may as well be a pager. He whips the thing out from his back pocket, annoyed, and opens up the message.

"Another one answered the call out," Adam says quickly as he opens the file, "Canary Morse..." he muttered and Alice looks back to Adam, her interest peaked. "You up for another adventure, kid?"

"Do you have to ask?" Alice says with a small smirk. Adam responds with a smirk of his own.

"Agent Rogers!" Adam calls forward. Sharon glances back at him. "Set a course for Salem Oregon!" Alice smiles and tense slightly in excitement as the quin-jet speed increases x10 and jets off.

* * *

Yelena knocks on Alice's closed door. No answer, not even a sound. Yelena opens the door only to find the closet wide open; emptied. No lap top and the dresser had been cleaned out. Yelena gasps and she feels the cold wind from the wind open window. She yells angrily as she swipes the lamp onto the floor, shattering it in her rage. "You stupid, _stupid_ little girl."


	8. Episode 4 (Pulling it Together Pt 1)

_There's that small, hated, unwanted sensation of being_ _ **Empty**_ _inside. When you can't shake it, it breaks you down from the inside out._

* * *

"Rise and shine daylight's burning away!" Adam called out into the small space the quin-jet provided. Alice groggily sat up from where she laid and slept spread out across several, padded seats with her jacket laid over her. She was thankful that it felt a lot warmer now. They were in western America now of course. Alice didn't think it would be so easy to cross the boarder, albeit they actually flew across. Sharon said that they'd get her a passport and I.D once they got back to H.Q and before that it shouldn't be a problem.

"Touch down in five," Sharon announced from the pilot's seat. Adam gave her a thumbs-up and turned back to Alice.

"Where are we again?" She asks and her accent is thick and slurred since she had just woken up not too long ago.

"Oregon," Adam answers, thinking she probably didn't remember much of the information since the last few days had been very eventful for Alice. So he decides to explain again. "There's a girl about your age in Salem that answered the same call out you got."

"You mean the cases?" Alice said, sitting up and trying to fix her hair a bit. Adam nodded.

"Yeah. The girls parent's are ex-S.H.I.E.L.D agent's and know about the full extent of the program. They've already agreed to let her come."

"Sounds like an easy mission," Alice says, now standing on the metal-grate flooring, stretching out her pale limbs out.

"You can change and fix yourself up once we get to the safe house," Adam says and Alice smirks and scoffs.

"Maybe I like looking like this; Bed-headed and grungy."

"Sarcasm," Adam says with a sideways grin, "somehow suits you."

"I try."

* * *

"Damn it! Fire like you mean it!" The officer says as the cadets fire at human shaped targets. Each cadet is in their own shooting lane with a pistol in hand.

"Shoot to kill, babe," says a boy who nudges Canary in the next lane over. Canary can't actually hear what he's saying from the protective ear muffs, but she can, however, read lips well. She rolls her eyes and fires at the dummies chest and the kid next to her gets slapped in the back of the head by the instructing officer, so Canary is pleased on both accounts. Canary fires until her magazine clip runs out. She's about to reload her gun when she notices that the lights over the training dummies go off, signalling that this part of the training exam is complete. And so far on Canary is pretty pleased with herself, especially since they started at 5:00 am this morning. The all deposit their ear muffs before leaving and hang their pistols back on the large hung rack on the far wall behind them. They're each inspected to make sure no one kept theirs for any reasons. Next they are all led to a large open room, set up in such a way for the exam exercise.

* * *

"Alright recruits this is the objective. Your task is to move around this small warehouse and, obviously, capture the flag. All recruits will be armed with only one fully loaded handgun with no extra mags and a small pocket knife," the instructor spoke loudly and it echoed through the room so all of the cadets could hear. Canary messes with her black kevlar vest a little as she listens to the details of the training op. Before they had even started Canary was spotting out different hot spots for getting a good angle on shooting. Her next thought was that this was a huge, one room, echoing warehouse and if she fired a shot at all then everyone would know where she was and she'd be caught immediately. No. She needed a different approach. "You will need to complete the following: Find cover, take down the hostilities, move through the course and complete your objective. Is that clear to everyone?" He asked. All the cadet's answered affirmatively and the exercise was underway. They ran through the lists alphabetically, so Canary was always one of the first to go. A few other kids had gone so far and had failed the test. Reason being the echolocation of the shots they were firing, proving Canary's suspicions. Soon it was Canary's turn. She dutifully moved up to the line and took her place, but unlike every other kid to go so far, she didn't draw her pistol. Training weapons of course. The instructor gave her the permission to start and Canary .

Canary immediately ran to the first large iron crate, making sure to stay on her toes so that she makes less noise. She peeks over the side of the crate then moves across the floor and slides behind a piles of sandbags. She peeked just over the top of those to see two guards. One right beyond the bags and another one a bit of a ways away. Canary stood up quickly, grabbed the guys gun and whipped him in the head with it. Now she had a rifle, but she put places it down quietly a little away from the knocked out soldier. Canary moved to the next cover quickly, afraid someone might have seen her, but regardless she kept moving. Canary lept over the next pile of sandbags, flipped a guard down and punched him hard in the head to knock him out. Canary looked up briefly before finding cover. The flag was close, she could see a clear path. Of course two armed guards just had to walk into that path. Canary moved far back against a another metal crate as she saw the two guards were advancing closer. Canary clenched her teeth to avoid them hearing her anxious heavy breathing. She kept on moving back and then felt something else metal touch her arm. She looked up to see a ladder which she immediately climbed up. She saw there was a guard on top of said crate so she quickly slid behind stack of wooden boxes placed on top of the larger metal crate. This guy was too far away for Canary to catch by surprise. If she moved even in the slightest he'd see her now with his puerperal vision. Canary wanted to curse, but she covered her mouth. She was shaky and had no idea what to do. She leaned forward a bit on her black shade-guard glasses hit her knee. That was it! Canary pulled the black shades off and threw them down on the floor hard enough to crack. The soldier looked to the opposite side of Canary when he heard the noise. Meanwhile Canary moved forwards, kicked the backs of his knee's and then as he fell down from the force she knocked him hard in the left side of his neck. Canary caught the gun before it dropped. She looked to see only two more soldiers. One right by the flag and one a ways out in front of it, but Canary was above both of them and had the high ground. Canary through the gun down into a metal oil drum and the guard out in front went to inspect the noise. Meanwhile Canary jumped down, lost her footing a bit and probably banged up her ankle pretty good. The guard whipped around and saw Canary, she tumbled forward quick so that his gun wouldn't be aimed directly on her. She rolled until she was right in front up him then she swung her leg up to hit the gun upwards to make it loosen in his grip. She sprung up, kicked his ankle hard, grabbed the gun away, stumbling back a little from the force she used to pull it away. He swung on her, but she ducked last minute. She elbowed him in the neck, the shoved the rifle forward with it in both hands giving this guy a powerful blow to the forehead. He crumpled to the ground and Canary kept the gun this time as she moved forward into the open to grab the flag. Just as she put her hand out to grab the flag someone twisted her arm backwards. Canary winced and her teeth ground together. She whipped the rifle at his chest. He moved back and let go to avoid the blow. Canary put her rifle up to fire, but he kicked it out of her hands and it skid away from both of them. He moved to kick her, but Canary slammed her elbow down on his knee to force his leg back down. He threw a right hook punch at her and Canary put left arm up to side block it and with her other arm she punched the side of his neck. He retaliated by placing a well aimed kick at her gut and Canary put up a bad block against it, but she still had enough strength to push back and make him stumble a bit. She fell back, loosing her balance. Meanwhile the man grabbed Canary's stray pistol as he to was getting up. Canary's eyes went very wide and she dove forwards to tackle him back down. He kneed her in the cheek, but Canary's eyes were set only on that gun, so fearful of it. She managed to pin his arm down as she was on top of him. He punched her in the side and Canary tumbled off him. The guy got on top of Canary now, with one foot pressed down forcefully on her bad ankle and she wanted to scream. The man pulled his arm around and pointed the gun at her. "Sorry, Miss Morse. But if this wasn't a test then your brains would be splattered all over the floor."

"If this wasn't a test," Canary started, very out of breath and sweating, "then you're guts would be split open." The guy's brows furrowed then he looked down to see Canary's pocket knife pressed up under his vest and right over his heart more than likely. He smirked and shook his head. He got up off of Canary and held out his hand to her to help her up.

"Nice job, cadet."

"Thank you, sir," Canary answered, breathing hard after the exercise and trying to calm herself down after the adrenaline rush. Canary grabbed the flag and walked, limped a little from her ankle, back to the start with the officer at the end. The other cadets clapped for her and the instructor nodded approvingly.

"This better be an example for all of you," the instructor said to the rest of the group, "Miss Morse is at least a year younger than all of you. I do not expect a single one to fail this course by you're trigger happy stupidity. Do I make myself clear?" They all confirmed and several of them gave Canary a stink eye. Oh how I just love to be the teacher pet, Canary thought sarcastically, but still she was sure that she passed the exam and that's all she needed to do toady.

* * *

Canary went back to one of the locker rooms per say to shower and cool down. After the cold shower she put on just a grey tank top with a blue cotton shirt with buttons that came halfway down and frayed jean shorts. Canary limped lightly over to one of the benches and sat down. She wrapped her right left ankle up with an ace bandage and then put on her black ked sneakers, wishing that she had picked out a better pair of shoes today since now her ankle hurt like hell after the fall and the fight. She moved over to the sinks to apply some cover up over the bruise on her cheek and figured anything after that would just have to do. Canary got up and walked out of the building onto campus to head back to one of the three schooling buildings. Yeah, she had to do psychical military training in the morning and normal classes in the afternoon. Still, it wasn't so bad. Canary got to the hallway and got her books out of her assigned locker.

"Hey Canary!" Called one of the girls from Canary's school. Jill was her name. Sweet, brilliant girl, but very absent minded and forgetful too, but in Canary's mind kinda cute. One of the girls here training to work in communications for the military. "Can you get my locker open? I forgot my combination...again."

"Yeah, sure girl," Canary answers and she crosses the hall diagonally. Canary digs a hair pin into the back of the circular lock. She twists the dial on the front round and round to the left, she then pushes the pin in slightly more then twists the dial to the right and the thing snaps open.

"Thanks. You're the best!" Jill says and she whips open the locker door, grabs onto her textbook and clutches into to her chest as if she were to let go it would drop and fall away to nothing.

"Ew," Canary says, shaking her hand out, "what the hell is all over your lock?"

"Hm?" Jill said looking at her lock and takes it and even squishes the already weird and squishy stuff in her hand. Canary raised an eyebrow and wanted to gag. "I don't really know..."

"And yet you're touching it?" Canary said have disgusted half amused. Jill shrugged, throwing her brunette ponytail to the side and moving her cute, big, black thick rimmed glasses slightly off center. "Probably just those annoying bitc- girls from the track team." Canary bit her tongue, knowing that Jill had this thing about cussing since her parent's were hardcore Catholics and very, seemingly, prim and proper to their religion.

"Anyways, thanks again."

"It's no problem," Canary says as she slings her backpack over one shoulder, "I'll see you after 5th period ends, yeah?" Jill mutters a quick good-bye, smiles and scurries away to class. Canary rolls her eyes, but grins. She walks to history which she promptly snoozes during. Why does anyone want to hear some old guy blathering about some even older guys doing stupid stuff? Answer: Definitely not Canary or anyone who knew how to have any real fun that was for sure. Canary had set her cell phone to vibrate and placed it on her upper thigh. She set an alarm to start at 2 minutes after attendance and to go off and shake her her awake 5 minutes before class ended. Just enough time to fix herself up so her teacher wouldn't look at her and instantly see her one red cheek from being pressed down on the desk, sleep in here eyes and messy blonde waves. Canary was jolted awake by the vibration and her phone nearly clattered on the floor, except she caught it with her foot last second. Although, now she had the issue of the small, black box now shaking wildly inside her boot that she could not grab until the end of class. It was very annoying at first, but after a minute or two her foot felt numb... and kind tingly, so it didn't matter.

As soon as class was dismissed Canary hot tailed it out of there. She need freedom, lunch and alternative rock music ASAP. Jill would probably be outside by now waiting at one of the lunch tables. Canary grabbed something quick and went out to look for Jill. The outside lunch area was scattered with various concrete picnic tables, tree's and, at this time, kids who were also relieved to be out of class. It was a pretty small, grassy area pressed up again the brick school building on the left side, but it was still alright. As much as an escape as the student's could really get, so not one of them complained. Canary moved to the back to the small yard, keeping her eyes open for Jill. She spotted Jill's jacket and text books on one of the table's. Canary assumed that she was setting up there. Canary moved passed the hordes of people. It's so noisy out here this time of year in June that you can barely hear yourself think. Canary finally makes it over and see's Jill is nowhere around her stuff. Canary does a full 360, slowly taking in everything. Listening closely through all of the noise. Nada. Canary frowns and sits down anyways. She opens her bottle of cola and it fizzes on the concrete table top, dripping down. Canary stands up quickly to avoid it getting on her pants. She feels a wetness on it anyways and looks down at the damage to her light grey cargo jeans. She instantly freezes when she finds it's a red liquid that's stained her the thighs and knee's of the fabric. Canary moves her hand on the bottom, bumpy side of the table and her hand instantly wets with the same stuff. Blood. Canary instantly thinks and dreads. She looks towards the thicker tree's and bushes area that they use as an area for capture the flag and other late night woods games. It also provides some cover from the class building's to the obstacle course and boot camp. "Jill?" Canary calls out, moving quickly back into the woodsy area. "Jill?!" Canary shouts louder this time, looking around the tree's frantically, but with no avail. The only sound to be heard were Canary's shouting and rustling, the soft hum of the wind and the other kids back at the small lunch area, chatting meaninglessly with no clue of what was going on.

* * *

"This is the 7th girl in 11 months!" Canary shouts at the secretary says looks sympathetic and sighs.

"Canary, hunny, I know you and Jillian Alges were friends. The state authority's are on this," the kind yet passive woman, Linda, who has seen Canary quite a few times since these event's had started taking place. She'd have theory's or idea's and sometimes even reports of the girls who had gone missing. Police first speculated that Canary may have been the culprit, but that was quickly disproved by various alibi's for each girl gone. Police had told Canary several times to stay away and out of it, but Canary never back down and persisted onward with her own investigation. "They'll find her."

"In what condition?" Canary snapped as she rose from her chair, grabbed her back pack and quickly turned away from the principal secretary's desk. She briskly walked out of the office, not planning to return to those naive jackasses. Canary walked alone back to her dorm and slammed her door. It was far too quiet in here without Jill. Canary threw her bag down hard in the doorway and moved over to her closet. She threw open the left door and peered at the cork board on the inside of it. Pictures, names, ages and nationality of all the girls who went missing. Canary had gone over all the various possible patterns or tracing methods, none proved to work so far and that was most of what she knew from tactical training at the academy.

Police speculated that there might be a rapist in the school and many boys were question. All of them turned up clean, which ruled that out. But while this investigation on the guys was still underway, all the girls in the school tended to stay clear of them. Walking on the edges of the school and going to long way around the building to class. This is when the supposed kidnappings started to pick up in spades, yet the police made no move on that fact and continued the male investigation. In fact, that particular point got Canary thinking. No one that smart as to sway attention like onto the teen males and -sadly- most common factors for rapist's and abductor's, goes without some kind of calling card or clue to draw even more attention to his or herself to draw in more victims. Canary spent the next several hours going over different variables and putting them together to try and find something. She first tried the combination of numbers, the coordinates where the girls were last seen before they went missing. That had no commonality as far as Canary could deduct. Next she tried a common in age or birth date, but those were just as all over the place as well. She kept going on like this for ages it seemed.

That night Canary was plagued with nightmares. Fears of what might happen to Jill.

* * *

The next morning Canary was off late to class. She had been up 4 hours previously still trying to decrypt the calling card that she though this person supposedly had. It was her best theory so far. Canary sauntered to class and was pretty lethargic this morning. She sat down at her desk and slouched back, dropping her bag on the floor. Half way through attendance someone came into the room with a note. She passes it to the home room teacher and whispered something in her ear quietly then scurried back out. "Miss Morse?" The teacher called and Canary lethargically raised her hand, thinking it was just the teacher going on attendance. A few kids snickered as the teacher called her again and she just raised her hand again. "Miss Morse, I've received this note saying you've been excused from classes for the rest of the day." Canary instantly perked up at this. That meant she could skip her history quiz! Canary grabbed her bag, got up and as she walked out of the room she held a peace sign up in the air with her fingers. She was pretty confused about the anonymous note, but hey, no history and more time to work. Canary, lost in her thought, nearly collided with two people. A young man, probably in his early 20's with blonde hair and sky blue eyes; wearing a grey T-shirt and jeans. He was pretty clean cut and seemed friendly enough. The next was a younger girl, maybe mid-teens, with scarlet red ringlet curls and hazel blue eyes. She was wearing a maroon tank top, that clashed with her hair, under her black hoodie; she had on dark, tight fit jeans, black biker gloves and converse boots. _All that was missing was_ _a tattoo and some lip and nose piercings,_ Canary thought to herself, _it would really complete the look_. The man smiled and stuck out his hand.

"Agent Foster. S.H.I.E.L.D meta-human associate." Canary was a little stunned but grasped his hand numbly.

"Canary," she says back, having a feeling that he already knows who she is, "and do you really expect me to remember all that?" He snickers.

"Well, that is the official term. Just Adam works fine."

"And you're from S.H.I.E.L.D.. both of you?" Adam looks back at Alice, who stays most silent and nods as an answer for both of them. Canary grins lightly. This is perfect. This is just what she needed.


	9. Episode 4 (Pulling it Together Pt 2)

_**Previously on "Dangerous Games"...**_

 _"Where are we again?" She asks and her accent is thick and slurred since she had just woken up not too long ago._

 _"Oregon," Adam answers, thinking she probably didn't remember much of the information since the last few days had been very eventful for Alice. So he decides to explain again. "There's a girl about your age in Salem that answered the same call out you got."_

 _"You mean the cases?" Alice said, sitting up and trying to fix her hair a bit. Adam nodded._

 _"Yeah. The girls parent's are ex-S.H.I.E.L.D agent's and know about the full extent of the program. They've already agreed to let her come."_

 _"Sounds like an easy mission," Alice says, now standing on the metal-grate flooring, stretching out her pale limbs out._

 _"This is the 7th girl missing in 11 months!" Canary shouts at the secretary says looks sympathetic and sighs._

 _"Canary, hunny, I know you and Jillian Alges were friends. The state authority's are on this," the kind yet passive woman, Lydia, who has seen Canary quite a few times since these event's had started taking place. She'd have theory's or idea's and sometimes even reports of the girls who had gone missing. Police first speculated that Canary may have been the culprit, but that was quickly disproved by various alibi's for each girl gone. Police had told Canary several times to stay away and out of it, but Canary never back down and persisted onward with her own investigation. "They'll find her."_

 _"In what condition?" Canary snapped as she rose from her chair, grabbed her back pack and quickly turned away from the principal secretary's desk. She briskly walked out of the office, not planning to return to those naive jackasses._

 _"Agent Foster. S.H.I.E.L.D meta-human associate." Canary was a little stunned but grasped his hand numbly._

 _"Canary," she says back, having a feeling that he already knows who she is, "and do you really expect me to remember all that?" He snickers._

 _"Well, that is the official term. Just Adam works fine."_

 _"And you're from S.H.I.E.L.D.. both of you?" Adam looks back at Alice, who stays most silent and nods as an answer for both of them. Canary grins lightly. This is perfect. This is just what she needed._

* * *

"Let me get this strait," Adam says once Canary escorts them inside her dorm room and shuts and locks the door behind them to make sure they have privacy, "seven girls missing, no pattern, all in less than a year and not one had been found yet dead or alive?"

"Pretty much," Canary mutters as she brushes a stray blonde lock out hair out of her eyes, "I've been on this thing for months."

"Aren't the police on this? Why don't they handle it?" Says the quiet ginger who, up 'til now, hadn't uttered a word. Canary snorts, amused at her remark.

"The authorities? I'd be surprised if the did more that jack," Canary snapped back. It was true though. Every time Canary asked the police a question or pressed for anything they would simply say We'll handle it and god only knows that they haven't.

"If you are coming to S.H.I.E.L.D, well, that is half way across the country," Alice pointed out. Canary sighed and crossed her arms, prepared to stand her ground.

"I know," she answered, "but I'm not going anywhere until this is resolved by me or otherwise."

"You seem pretty.. sure of yourself," Alice says. But Arrogant is what Canary hears and picks up from her. Canary only scoffs.

"Okay, it's decided then," Adam intervenes before a fight breaks out between the two ladies, "Alice and I will stay and help you catch the kidnapper."

"What?" Alice and Canary both simultaneously say. Canary pleased and surprised, Alice more so exasperated at displeased.

"That is what you wanted," Adam says and Canary freezes still under his gaze. She nods and looks at her feet for a minute. She puts her hand back and pulls open the closet door, reveling the filled cork board. Alice sits down at the desk chair and Adam moves forward, hands it his pockets, to surveys it. Adam whistles lowly. "You really do have everything on here."

"You'd think it'd be impossible for there not to be a pattern, right?" Canary huffed, worried and annoyed. Oh so annoyed by how this person operated.

"Well, there's got to be something here. I can can send some of these to Agent Rogers and she can probably have it decrypted by-" Adam began then was cut off by a low, exasperated, insulting laugh.

"You are both of you idiots," Alice says after looking at the board only once. Once! Canary gives her a look and raises her eyebrows.

"I'm sorry, but what here is so obvious that us idiot's," are missing mocked Canary, doing a bad imitation of Alice's accent. Alice shrugged and leaned back. "You're not even trying to help!" Canary snapped once more.

"Fine," Alice said, putting her feet up, "I'll keep to myself." Canary's blood boiled and her hands balled into fist's. How was this chick taking kidnappings so lightly enough to tease about it?! Who did she think she was?! "I just won't mention how obvious the names are."

"Names?" Adam resounds, pulling school files of the girls off the board. Alice hums to answer.

"Да," Alice affirms, she gets up and moves over to the cork board. She instantly pulls things away and rearranges many things on the board.

"No, please, be my guest," Canary mutters sarcastically as she watches Alice throw things on the ground and twist and re-pin other pages and forms.

"There," Alice finally says, stepping back to survey the board, pleased with herself, "that is all you need."

"And you think I'm arrogant," Canary reiterates in mock tone what Alice had previously said, well, what she thought she said. Alice smirks.

"I didn't say that, but it is funny how that's what you deduced from that conversation."

"Penance," Adam says finally, looking at the letter's that Alice had arranged together, "Alice maybe right."

"But there's no J in Penance," Canary protest's, not so much for the sake of trying to bring down Alice- though it would be a perk- but for the sake of facts. "Jill's-"

"Real name is Eliza Alges. Jill being her middle name according to the forums," Adam adds. Canary sighs and puts her hands up.

"Okay, but what is Penance suppose to mean?" Canary puts out again, "Honestly, it just freaks the hell outta me. Horror movie style big time."

"Penance is a very name popular in certain superhuman circles-"

"You think the kidnapper is a meta-human?" Alice cut in, curiously. Adam first gives her a look as if to say and here I though you weren't interested. Alice rolls her eyes and raises and eyebrow questioningly. Adam turns his attention back to the pages.

"Makes sense, doesn't it? No trace, no bodies, not pattern except this," Adam says, waving the page a little. Canary looks confused and a little lost.

"Wait, so you're saying there's some powered person on some man hunt in my school?"

"Technically a girl hunt, but yeah, I think so," Adam says, taking out his phone and dialing up something fast.

"What are you doing?" Canary asks, but is stopped when Adam holds a hand up as he's in a call.

"Agent Rogers? Yeah, I need you to shut down this school for the rest of the day. Entirely. Don't ask me why right now, I just really need you to do it." And with that he hangs up. And now Alice is even on edge.

"This Penance is really bad, isn't it?" Alice breathes lowly. Adam nods and opens the door, heading outside with both girls trailing him.

"Yeah," he answers as he goes outside the back way of the dorm, "she is." He motions for both of the girls to stay back under the small brick overhang of the school roof. Adam holds out his hands, lighting surrounds them. Canary's eyes go wide as she stares at the scene before her. Adam suddenly jets his hands upwards and the lighting bolts upwards and strikes several clouds. They turn black as ash and a small rumbling can be heard.

"Canary, how many miles does your school stretch too?" Adam asks as another rumble sounds.

"Um.. I dunno," Canary answers numbly, still stunned, "just a few." Adam nods and puts his jacket back on.

"Both of you wait inside the dorm until I get back." Before Canary can ask anything about the situation Adam jets up into the sky, soaring into the clouds and with each passing moment the cloud cover darkens. Canary looks up as the sun is blotted out by the black clouds. There's a deafening rumble emitting from the sky then rain pours down so hard the girls have to step back further under the brick overhang as the rain is pounding so hard it's bouncing onto their toes.

"Damn," is all Canary gets out. Her and Alice both jump at an unnaturally loud clap of thunder, they glance at each at other at each other and walk inside the brick dorm building. Canary fished around for the key in her pocket then unlocked her door. The both froze when the saw the glass of Canary's far window smashed open. Or rather sliced so it appeared.

"Oh my god," Canary said loudly as she saw things tipped over and thing being blown over as a result of the slashed open part of the window and Adam's storm. Canary walked briskly into the room, starring at the damage and all the papers of her cork board blown everywhere. That Adam guy is gonna clean all this up, Canary thought, bitterly.

Alice stayed back in the doorway, surveying from a far and it was good that she had been. Next, a woman with blood red skin and blood red spikes for fingers in hair; wearing black ragged clothes. She had jumped off the wall above the doorway where she had embedded her claws and hung there in wait.

"Canary!" Alice yelled and Canary whipped around to be met, in close quarters, with the daunting meta-human. Canary ducked when the woman swung on her with her long, hard claws. Canary tried to counter with a blow of her ow, but it didn't even phase the woman. Barely caused her a pause. She grabbed Canary with her hands, even the sides of her claws biting into Canary's skin enough to cause rows of cuts. Alice, while the woman was distracted with Canary, had moved around to shove a shard of thick glass up into the very think spot in the back of her head, right where the spine and skull connect. A spot that would, normally, cause instant brain damage and paralyze a person, but this strange woman only howled, dropped Canary and swung around on Alice. Alice had just barely enough strength to block it and flip the red woman onto the floor. "Stay down!" Alice warned, seriously doubting that would happen and then mentally cursed herself for stuttering slightly. The red woman swung her leg to kick Alice back and Alice flew back hard against the wall, slumping down onto the ground after the forceful impact. Canary gasped at the scene, but before she could even react to Alice the red woman had her again and she lept out the window, dragging Canary along with her to locations unknown.

* * *

"Alice? Alice!" Adam yelled as he walked down the hall towards Canary's dorm after he was done wreaking havoc in the weather system, in the process probably getting many meteorologists fired. Alice groaned and slowly game to.

"Черт сука," Alice swore and her hand went to the back of her head, searching and feeling around for a bruise or cut, "может ударить чертовски трудно." The blow to the head must have knocked the English right out of her, Adam thought and then his next thought was him mentally slapping himself because this was all very serious.

"Where's Canary?" Adam asked, looking around at the damages of the space, fearing the worst.

"она взяла- I mean, ow, the Red Woman took her." Adam's breath hitched. He had heard tales of Penance or The Red Woman being invincible, but also not evil. There was an element to this that Adam didn't like at all.

"I'll call Agent Rogers. She'll patch you up okay?" Adam said as he helped Alice to her feet then he went to examining the cuts on the window, tracing his fingers on the perfectly sliced edges.

"This is all my fault," Alice says dreadfully looking about.

"Hey," Adam says firmly, looking back at Alice for a moment, "no. No it isn't.

"You can find here?" Alice asks quickly, hand still holding the back of her head.

"I could," Adam said dryly and actually angrily, "If I had something of Penance to track. Without it no magic can help and as far as I can tell from this," Adam explains, gesturing to the clean, broken glass from the window pane, "no blood or from either of him. We're outta luck on this one." Adam scowls and hits a chair against the wall.

"Maybe not," Alice says, her word thickly accented and slurred now, "maybe this will help." Alice holds out the bloody shard of glass.

"Well I'll be damned," Adam proclaimed. Maybe Penance wasn't as invincible as they say.

* * *

Canary is thrown hard onto the uneven, stone flooring of the sunken cave. "Classic horror movie bitch, aren't you?" Canary's spits at the Red Woman. She just looks at Canary, blue shining eyes un-moving. "You're a serious creep, hun," Canary adds, getting to her feet. As soon as she does she see's a silhouette form and then hears a light groan. "Jill!" Canary explains, rushing over to her.

"You're...so...human," the Red Woman speaks slowly and brokenly. Her voice sounds innocent, but her exterior throws Canary off.

"Well aren't we obvious," Canary snaps as she checks Jill's pulse and her skin for injury's.

"I..Want you," she continues.

"For what?!" Canary yells, standing back up and turning around, now angered, "you already had leverage with Jill!"

"I don't want...lev-verage..death.. I want to be human again."

"Well that ship has sailed so leave us alone!" Canary screamed. The Red Woman shook her head, almost sadly.

"I can't.. she won't let me..I am..Hollow..this is my Penance.. to return to normal."

"Sounds like you're on the shit end of a deal." Or maybe I am, Canary thinks.

"..Sorry," is all she responds with. She throws a knife at Canary, but not as an attack; she throws it to her to catch. Canary does and the first thing she notices it the knife is made out of diamond. "Fair fight," she says, but she doesn't sound optimistic, but she does however sound pleading. Canary grips the knife tight and she heard Jill moan again. Canary moves to try and slash the woman's chest, but with no avail she she just moves around, throwing a slash of her own with those razor sharp claws. Canary is able to tumble around the move and cut the Red Woman's ankle, the blade cutting through her hard skin effectively. The Red Woman screams and kicks Canary back hard against the rock wall. Canary moves once again just in time to avoid getting dove on by her. Canary tumbles over again to avoid being crushed by a rock. She looses her footing a bit and just behind the rock comes the aggressor who grabs Canary's shoulder's and lift's her up.

"Hey!" Yells a male voice Canary briefly recognizes. Penance is temporarily distracted enough for Canary to pull loose just slightly and shove the knife into Penance's chest. She screams and a blue light pours from her chest. She drops Canary and Canary twists the knife. The blue light continues to pour and pour and fly away. Soon, the hollow Penance falls mostly limp, dagger still in her chest. She lifts a clawed hand up and Canary reels back from it, but this time the Red Woman is gentle. She carefully lays the hand on Canary's shoulder; her eyes surprisingly whole.

"Thank you," she says, even more broken than before. Canary gently pulls the dagger out from her chest.

* * *

Canary was now in her room very early the morning after, a bit bruised up, but packing up her all stuff none the less. Or rather trying to find all her stuff from the indoor tornado that apparently overtook her dorm room. She started on zipping up her large duffle bag when she paused. She saw a slightly cracked frame on the floor. She gingerly picked it up. The glass was full of web line crack, but in tact. The picture inside was old, but Canary held onto it all these years. It was a photograph of a man with short, light brunette hair; a bit militant looking by the way it was shaved a bit shorter on the sides. He was wearing a red long sleeve-t, jeans, a grey hoodie with a black leather jacket over that and who could not notice those slick black shades he had on. Canary traced her fingers over the glass gently, but still nicked her middle finger.

"Damn," she cursed as she pulled her hand away, shaking it out.

"It's better to be careful with those," says a voice Canary knows. She glances slightly to the right into the doorway and views the ginger without moving her head.

"Yeah, yeah. I only nicked this one," Canary says and promptly flicks up her middle finger at Alice. Alice raises and eyebrows and snickers.

"Yeah, maybe I had that one coming," she confesses.

"Oh, you did," Canary confirms and she wipes some blood onto her dark jeans.

"Who is that?" Alice asks as she slowly saunters, making her way into the room, "the man in the picture," she elaborates, but Canary had already guessed on what she was asking.

"That's my Dad. I don't see him any."

"Нет?" Alice says in Russian and Canary knows enough to know that that means _No_. Canary sighs and shrugs.

"My parent's, my Mom and step-Dad -sorta- had some spat years ago about this, kinda how I found out. Apparently, My Mom, while on a mission she took advantage of my biological Dad and apparently he was married. Think her name was Laura... Really great woman."

"Yikes," Alice says and she tilts her head to view the picture better, glaring at the man almost, "you don't see him ever?"

"My Mom took those rights away years ago. Court marshal with lots of help from S.H.I.E.L.D," Canary explains and she doesn't like it much at all. She packs the picture inside the bag and zips it up.

"You know my mother has a saying for something like this," Alice adds as she takes Canary's other bag out the door, heading outside to the car so they drive to where the quin-jet is stationed.

"What is it?" Canary asks as she and Alice walk outside.

"Желая что-то плохо, вы никогда не будете иметь его. Иногда, вы должны преследовать его." Canary snickers as she loads both bags into the truck and her and Alice walk around to the front.

"In English please," Canary implores as she opens the passenger door of the car and slides in, seating herself on the hot black leather.

"It means that just wanting something bad enough, you'll never have it. Sometimes you have to chase it down."

"You're mom sounds like she's pretty wise," Canary says as she leans back against the seat. Alice looks off distantly passed the shaded windshield of the car, hands in the wheel.

"Yeah...she has her moment's..."

* * *

"Wait, I am confused about the fight," Alice says once they are all safely seated on the quin-jet a few days later, with Canary all packed up, "do any of us know what actually transpired?"

"She was possessed," Adam explains, earning two very odd looks from the girls, "in a way.. Every kidnapped girl; she had just absorbed them. So then all of those girls were scared and crazed, ruining her and running her rampant."

"So that's why she tried to kill," Alice says.

"No," Adam cuts her off, "she didn't try to kill. Canary she thought would bring order to her inner chaos, since Canary always seems on top of things." Canary smiles and Alice rolls her eyes. Canary did just get kidnapped after all.

"What about the other girls?" Alice asks next and this fact certainly shouldn't have been an afterthought.

"They were found scattered in the woods. Most likely where they were taken," Adam explains as he pulls out his phone.

"Do they?-"

"No," Adam says cutting her off again, "I know a girl who can make people very.. forgetful all of the sudden. The less they know the safer they and us will be." Alice nods and goes back to looking out the window.

"What about Penance?" And this time Canary asks Adam.

"She'll pull through. She's amazingly tough. But what I'm really concerned about is who made her sabotage herself like that. I'm not sure who would do that to her, she was part of Generation X, with the X-men. I'm not even sure who could do that to her. I didn't think any kind of magic was that powerful."

"Strange," Canary says, pondering this, looking at the window gloomily.

"Oh no!" JP cries back at the at the S.H.I.E.L.D Octagon base and housing for the meta-human division. "Not two more girls! Adam WHY?!" JP cried dramatically, falling onto the couch. Adam snickered and shook his head. He hung his jacket back up. It had been a Long week, but now the girls were here.

"Adeline, JP, I want you to meet Alice Belova and Canary Morse," Adam says happily. JP groans and Adeline smiles in a friendly way, but there's still meek and shyness to it. It's actually pretty cute.

"This place is freakin' sweet," Canary says, dropped her bag when she's only part way into the main room. She climbs up over the glass half wall and flings herself down onto the couch. "Bliss." Alice rolls her eyes and goes right to her new room. Adeline stays still as if trying to silently assess her knew roommates with all their cooky traits. Adam goes to grab a beer; this time he needs one. He settles down onto the other golden couch and settles in for some R&R. Albeit that would have been easier with Canary and JP not yelling every second to something that happened on a video game they both instantly started playing; Call Of Duty: Black Ops. Adam still grinned and closed his eyes. At least they were getting somewhere now.


	10. Episode 5 (Perfect on the Outside Pt 1)

_Innocence. A complete and utter lie. Each day you cover the bruises on your arms and the cuts on your lips. Whenever somebody asks you you lie and claim that it fine, no matter how broken you feel, you always look_ _ **Perfect on the Outside.**_

* * *

"Everybody up!" Adam called, even though he knew for certain that all four of the current resident's were awake, just lazy. Adeline was already up and dressed, Canary was helping herself to whatever she wanted from the fridge. Alice was still kicking back in her pj's; a black sports bra with a butterfly on it and black silky, loose capri pants. JP, well, he probably actually was asleep until now. "We've got two new initiates coming in today," Adam announces, clasping his hands together. There were several mumbles of approval from the mostly lethargic teenagers. "Their parent's are already agreed and bought into the story. I'm going to get them and they should both be here by tomorrow."

"What can they do?" Asks Canary as she pulls the milk carton out from the fridge and then hits the stainless steal door closed with her hip.

"Well, they're both BMH's, I know that much." That statement got Adam a few confused looks.

"What the hell is a BMH," questions JP completely confused and he was very animated. The girls eyed him oddly him oddly, he threw his hands up. "We were all thinking it." Alice shrugged.

"Okay, what is it?" She asks. Adam looked up at the ceiling, pondering this for a minute.

"Okay everyone story time, gather round," Adam says as he walked to the middle of the slightly raised section of the living area. The teens shrugged and did what they were told to. "So, there are two types of meta-humans, blood and energy. Blood is more internal, having more psychical attributes like strength, speed, intelligence, senses, etc. And while all meta-humans have advanced or altered DNA and blood, blood meta-humans can only draw from that source. Blood meta-humans cannot generally turn off their powers since it's internally coded actively into their DNA. Blood meta-humans powers stay generally at one consistent level of power and can only be raised by higher density substances or emotional distress and also through training. The energy type meta-humans are the ones who usually have stronger or more unique powers. Energy meta-humans can raise their vibration or level of power by focusing and channeling their abilities and building up, well, inner energy. A fault in energy meta-humans is that their powers are heavily tied to their emotions. Energy meta-humans are mainly able to control elements or things beyond themselves or alter things beyond themselves. There's also Phantom meta-humans, but that is far too awkward to go into right now." All the kids did was blink after that long explanation.

"You.. didn't word that all yourself, did you?" Said Adeline, as it wasn't voiced so much as a question.

"No 'course not. It was a thesis done by Connor Stark," Adam explains wryly.

"Is there any such thing as meta-humans who are both?" JP asks as he pops a disc into the Xbox. Adam flashes a side-pulled grin.

"I suppose there are, but they are extremely rare and they are rarely not considered to be dangerously powerful if not vastly destructive to entire cities," Adam explains to the group of kids and they all take this in with raped attention. Even JP paused half way through the menu screen on Call Of Duty. "Anyways," Adam says to break off the thought of curiosity and violence he was sure the kids were having, "I have to get going now. You all behave." That statement earned Adam several amused looks. "Be civil-" Some of them snickered. "Don't kill each other...?" Several scoffs. "It's too late for me to cancel going," Adam sighs, "just don't destroy everything in the process."

"Got'cha," Canary said as she went back for her milk, drinking it strait from the carton.

"Ew," Adeline said as she saw, making a mental note not to drink any milk until they got more.

"Such a priss," Alice mocked under her breath. Adam sighed, exasperated and walked out of the silver octagon house.

* * *

"James, this is Rori Stark. Rori, this is James Rogers," Adam says as James walks up into the quin-jet, entirely packed up for the rest of the year for Meta-Human High; Rori's new running pun.

"I don't know why people say that twice, with reversed names, if both people are in fact standing right there," Rori jokes. Adam shrugs.

"It's nice to meet you, Rori, Agent Foster-"

"Nah, kid," Adam says causally, waving him off, "just Adam works fine. No need to be so formal." The flight with the two of them was easy. They just talked on and on, mainly about their mysterious cases and how they found them. Adam was content to hear those stories.

"-So then it was all like: You're a blood meta-human, I can't believe that S.H.I.E.L.D runs off my brother's thesis," Rori says, going on and on. Seemingly, she had no problems talking with the others. Next up; getting her to stop talking.

"You're brother must know a lot of superhuman's," James said, Rori snorted a laugh.

"My brother's never even met another superhuman, well, besides me," Rori says as she leans back in her seat.

"Oh," James says a little dishearten. Rori gave him a side stretched grimace. "Well, whatever..."

"His next theory is superhuman's that are considered dangerous and which aren't. I personally don't think it's fair to judge based on that since any wrong person holding a rifle can be dangerous," Rori explains and she goes into great detail. After that her and James discuss their own powers. Adam is pleased that it seems like these two may get along fine. Adam just smiles and lets them chit-chat about everything and nothing. Adam gets very confused when Sharon suddenly turns the quin-jet around fast and suddenly enough to make them all jolt. Adam holds out a hand to allay James and Rori as he makes his way to the front.

"Agent Rogers, what's going on?" He asks lowly.

"Sorry Adam, but we have an emergency 084," Sharon explains, accelerating the speed even more. Adam glances back at the two kids and Sharon catches it, "I know, but we gotta go ASAP. Or rather, you do." Adam was actually nervous now. "Check this out." Sharon hands Adam a glass tablet and Adam peers down at the information immediately.

"The kid oped out, Agent Rogers. With all due respect we can't force him. And on a note of much less respect I won't tolerate a _child_ being referred to as a _number_ ," Adam stated blandly and distastefully. Sharon instantly cleared her throat and revised her previous statement, thinking about James first and foremost on that particular note.

"Sorry, force of habit. And this isn't what you think it is," Sharon says, trying to get him to see. Adam still frowns.

"From my perspective all I see is S.H.I.E.L.D just pulling one more for the team," Adam states, trying to keep his exterior cool, calm and collected and not sound hostile towards a woman who was, in fact, just following the orders she was given and being good at her job.

"Then maybe you need to look again," said Sharon, swiping a page on the tablet. Adam's eye's went a bit wider after that with the reading.

"Oh my god.." Adam breathes, "this kid.. he's a _hybrid_."

* * *

Matthew walked out of the classroom from 4th period, feeling just tired and bored with today. He's feeling a bit better psychically from the recent wear off. Although now he felt the other kind of pain. That one that came after all wore off and damn was it burning him up today. There were beads of sweat on accumulating his forehead, he could feel it trickling down his brow and his skin getting increasingly warmer by the minute.

"Hey, Ross," said once of the boys Matthew knew, Aaron; nice kid, blonde hair, green eyes, part of the track team, B+ student. Good guy. His brows furrowed and he looked concerned. "You doing okay there?"

"Yeah. I'm a, um, just- I gotta go," Matthew says as he walks passed him. Aaron watches him leave, looking pretty curious and worried. Matthew pushed open the restroom door and walked inside. Two of the boys knocked him a little from around the first wall that sections off a large corner to the bathrooms. Matthew coughed once from the smoke that they puffed in his face from the cigarette's. They snickered once and then let him walk off. Matthew was happy that there was a wall to obscure their vision of him. Matthew turned the knob on the faucet and splashed some cold water on his face. He breathed out heavily and dabbed some more cold water on the back of his neck and face. He leaned his hands down on the white, porcelain counter top and just stays there. His head falls into his hands and suddenly he's just drained, yet somehow everything inside him is just invigorated and energized; ready to go. But then why is he still so tired? After a while Matthew pushes himself up and grabs a paper towel to dry his face off. He wished the water would cool down the inside of him.

Matthew finally decided to screw it. He walked back out of the restroom and out of the school entirely. He decided to walk back home right then. He decided to just lie and tell his parent's they had a field trip or it was a half day or something. By the time Matthew got home his vision was starting to change. Not in a bad way, but every single light or flare hurt his eyes and gave him a headache. Matthew just wanted to go up into his room and turn it into a sensory deprivation chamber until this latest spike spots hurting him. Matthew walks in the door only to find that his mother and step-father have company. Perfect, he thought sarcastically, just what I need right about when I feel like I might explode. The man sitting across from Matthew's parent's had blonde hair and sky blue eyes. He looked pretty casual with his grey t-shirt, brown leather coat and jeans. The next was a dirty blond haired woman with wavy hair that went to her shoulders. She was wearing black khakis and a light blue button down shirt and looked much more formal than the man. His parent's were smiling and seemed pleased by what they were talking about.

"My son is bipolar so I'd like to know what else does your school offer, Miss Rogers." Betty Ross asked, seeming very open and pleased by the way the discussion was going so far. Matthew's ear's perked instantly. School?

"It's very prestigious," the blonde haired woman assures them, "only a few protege's are selected per year." Not a total lie, but the truth was actually better in the sense that he was one of the only protege's chosen ever. "So naturally he'd be entitled to only the best."

"Interesting," Betty said, seeming pretty won-over. Except for one aspect. Matthew felt another spike. He leaned on the end table near the doorway, where he was just listening, and the lightest bit of pressure shattered it. The other participant's of the room whipped their gaze around to Matthew, who, at this moment, did not want the attention. "Honey?" Betty said lightly worried, Matthew didn't respond to her right away, he just sorta looked at her out of focus.

"Matthew, you're bleeding," Matthew's step-dad, Lenard, said worried as he got up. He lightly took Matthew's hand that was cut; since he had used it to unintentionally used it to shatter the wood and glass end table. "Whoa, are you alright?" He asked as he put a hand to Matthew's forehead, keeping it there, "you're burning up, bud." Betty also got up and moved over to Matthew. She placed a hand on his cheek.

"Why don't you go lie down, I'll go get your...medicine. Just take it easy, okay?" Betty then whispered something to Lenard that nor Adam or Sharon could hear. Matthew promptly went up the stairs that were right off the front hallway of the house.

"Well," Adam said, clasping his hands together and standing up, "maybe we should postpone this until tomorrow."

"Yes, of course," Lenard said, shaking Adam's hand, "12:00 o'clock sound alright?"

"Perfect," Sharon said, "thank you." Then her and Adam both exited the house. The moved down the light concrete steps and down the pristine driveway and walked down the sidewalk back the location they stopped at. And it would be best to get back to Rori and James who they left in the quin-jet. "they seemed like nice people."

"Too nice almost," Adam added and Sharon nodded immediately agreeing. They were almost too perfect and they talked about their son as if he was perfect, but when Adam and Sharon saw him he was a heated mess. "His powers are going haywire no doubt," Adam tells Sharon, "just by seeing the panic in his eyes."

"Well, he is a hybrid," Sharon added, "sadly statistics show that hybrid's don't have a lot of control over their abilities. Just look at the last two; one started a mutant war and the other damaged Harlem pretty badly." Adam grimaced and nodded sadly.

"I know.. That kid already looks pretty strained. I'd say it wouldn't be long until he starts increasing levels."

"You think?" Sharon says nervously. They did not need a level 6 hybrid on their hands again; the last two were absolute disasters.

"He's maybe a level 3 or 4 right now. We can bring it down as long as we stay calm and make sure his parent's agree to send him with us so we can get him help. We have to get to him before the other shoe drops."

* * *

"Here you go, baby," Betty says gingerly as she walks into Matthew's dim room. Matthew was laying on his bed, sweating . Lenard just watches in the doorway.

"Mom, I don't want the drugs," Matthew snaps. Betty ran her hand through his thick, dark raven hair.

"Shh," Betty coes as she uncaps the pill bottle, deciding that maybe she should change the medicine to an injectable solution so that it won't be as hard to fight with him over getting the drugs into his system to shut down anything strange that might happen to or with him. Matthew was getting far too suspicious at this point and age. Betty knew deep down that Matthew knew he wasn't really bipolar. "Come on," Betty says as she tips the bottle to pour out far too many pills and does not put them back. Matthew suddenly just gets very angry about all of this. He's not even quite sure why. He smacks his Mother's hand and the pills spill all over the floor.

"Matthew," Lenard scolds harshly, but Matthew doesn't even care. He gets up and off the bed.

"Leave me the hell alone!" Matthew instantly snaps right back and starts to walk towards the door when Lenard walks forward to stop him by grabbing his shoulder.

"Hey! You don't disrespect you're Mother and I that way," Lenard said to Matthew, not in a cruel way but very very firm.

"You cannot tell me what to do! You're not my Dad!" Matthew said, slapping Lenard's hand off his shoulder. Lenard sighed softly in frustration.

"Matthew, we're not going through that again. You're just acting like a child-"

"We never went through it in the first place!" Matthew yelled, raising his voice and throwing his hands up angrily. "Never even once!" Matthew missed a step and stumbled slightly. Matthew saw both of his parent's concerned looks. He intended to walk out of his room, but only made it to the doorway before Lenard grabbed him again.

"Hey.. Matthew you're burning up again," Lenard said stopping him and putting a hand on his forehead seeing how sweaty and out of it he suddenly looked. "You really need to take your medicine now-"

"Don't touch me!" Matthew shouted and he shoved Lenard away, not hard, at least that's what Matthew thought. Lenard practically flew out the door way and slammed into the far wall, crashing against a bookshelf placed there before he fell sideways and tumbled down the stairs. Matthew didn't even think he had the capability to hit somehow that far! I mean, what kind of person did?!

"Lenard!" Betty screamed as she bolted down the stairs to him in an instant. She knelt down beside him an immediately checked his pulse. Finding it she was only semi-relieved. "Matthew!" Betty screamed angrily, "how could you do this?!" She cried, then paused seeing Matthew's eyes. The strange hue that they'd taken. Matthew was leaned against the wall, horrified with what had just happened. What he'd just done. Matthew bolted back into his room and slammed the door, to his surprise the door cracked where he had hit it and flew off it's metal hinges. Matthew started breathing hard. Suddenly every little noise hurt his ears and made him feel numb and disoriented and every flash of light burned and stung his eyes. He numbly pried the screen off the the boxed window. climbed out. "Matthew!" Betty screamed after him, but he didn't stop. He climbed down the siding of the house and ran off with no clear direction to anything.


	11. Episode 5 (Perfect on the Outside Pt 2)

_**Previously on "Dangerous Games"...**_

 _"Okay everyone story time, gather round," Adam says as he walked to the middle of the slightly raised section of the living area. The teens shrugged and did what they were told to. "So, there are two types of meta-humans, blood and energy. Blood is more internal, having more psychical attributes like strength, speed, intelligence, senses, etc. The energy type meta-humans are the ones who usually have stronger or more unique powers. Energy meta-humans can raise their vibration or level of power by focusing and channeling their abilities and building up, well, inner energy. A fault in energy meta-humans is that their powers are heavily tied to their emotions."_

 _"Is there any such thing as meta-humans who are both?" JP asks as he pops a disc into the Xbox. Adam flashes a side-pulled grin._

 _"I suppose there are, but they are extremely rare and they are rarely not considered to be dangerously powerful if not vastly destructive to entire cities," Adam explains to the group of kids and they all take this in with raped attention._

 _"So they're very dangerous."_

 _"James, this is Rori Stark. Rori, this is James Rogers," Adam says as James walks up into the quin-jet, entirely packed up for the rest of the year for Meta-Human High; Rori's new running pun._

 _"I don't know why people say that twice, with reversed names, if both people are in fact standing right there," Rori jokes. Adam shrugs._

 _"It's nice to meet you, Rori, Agent Foster."_

 _"Agent Rogers, what's going on?" He asks lowly._

 _"Sorry Adam, but we have an emergency 084," Sharon explains, accelerating the speed even more. Adam glances back at the two kids and Sharon catches it, "I know, but we gotta go ASAP. Or rather, you do." Adam was actually nervous now. "Check this out." Sharon hands Adam a glass tablet and Adam peers down at the information immediately._

 _"The kid oped out, Agent Rogers. With all due respect we can't force him. And on a note of much less respect I won't tolerate a child being referred to as a number," Adam stated blandly and distastefully._

 _"Sorry, force of habit. And this isn't what you think it is," Sharon says, trying to get him to see. Adam still frowns._

 _"Oh my god.." Adam breathes, "this kid.. he's a hybrid."_

 _"You cannot tell me what to do! You're not my Dad!" Matthew said, slapping Lenard's hand off his shoulder. Lenard sighed softly in frustration._

 _"Matthew, we're not going through that again. You're just acting like a child-"_

 _"We never went through it in the first place!" Matthew yelled, raising his voice and throwing his hands up angrily. "Never even once!" Matthew missed a step and stumbled slightly. Matthew saw both of his parent's concerned looks. He intended to walk out of his room, but only made it to the doorway before Lenard grabbed him again._

 _"Hey.. Matthew you're burning up again," Lenard said stopping him and putting a hand on his forehead seeing how sweaty and out of it he suddenly looked. "You really need to take your medicine now-"_

 _"Don't touch me!" Matthew shouted and he shoved Lenard away, not hard, at least that's what Matthew thought. Lenard practically flew out the door way and slammed into the far wall, crashing against a bookshelf placed there before he fell sideways and tumbled down the stairs. Matthew didn't even think he had the capability to hit somehow that far! I mean, what kind of person did?!_

 _"Lenard!" Betty screamed as she bolted down the stairs to him immediately. She knelt down beside him an immediately checked his pulse. Finding it she was only semi-relieved. "Matthew!" Betty screamed angrily, "how could you do this?!" She cried, then paused seeing Matthew's eyes. The strange hue that they'd taken. Matthew was leaned against the wall, horrified with what had just happened. What he'd just done. Matthew bolted back into his room and slammed the door, breathing hard. He numbly pried the screen off the the boxed window. climbed out. "Matthew!" Betty screamed after him, but he didn't stop. He climbed down the siding of the house and ran off with no clear direction to anything._

* * *

Late that night after treating Sharon, James and Rori to dinner, Adam debated whether or not to just bring the kids back to the Octagon house outside S.H.I.E.L.D HQ. Rori and James weren't sure though about just leaving without the other kid coming with them. Adam was pleased by their response and so Sharon called in to one of those special hotels and got them the penthouse suite free of charge. Adam just bought everyone whatever they needed for the night and day after and left it at that.

"No. Let's watch big bang theory," Rori said pointing to the TV guide on the hotel flat-screen. James shrugged and clicked it. He liked this show, though he'd be caught dead if he watched this in front of his dad. His dad was... pretty strict. Rori opened a bag of chips and hung out with James on one of the beds in the main room of the suite. Adam was glad that they were both so friendly and he didn't think they'd have any problems with any of the other kids.

"So, what do you think about the Ross' decision?" Adam asked Sharon off to the side. She was sitting at the full dining table off to the side; only a dim light was around her. Sharon looked up at Adam from behind her tablet where she was probably reporting in to Maria Hill or maybe even Phil Coulson who Adam had yet to meet. But with being the director of the good S.H.I.E.L.D Adam was sure that he was busy running this whole operation.

"I don't know. I think we got them hooked on our angle, but," Sharon paused, "there was something pretty big that they were avoiding. The, seemingly, invisible elephant in the room." Adam nodded and decided to make some coffee instead of sitting down. "Are you planning on a long night?" Sharon asked. Adam shrugged, not even going to even come close to opening that can of worms, so he addressed the previous topic.

"The kid," Adam said as he poured the coffee grinds into the thin paper cup before her popped it into the top of the coffee maker and turned it on. "I'm getting the vibe that his parent's know something's up with him."

"You think his parent's know about his powers?" Sharon asked as she swiped to a different page on her tablet, glancing up at Adam every once and a while.

"I think that his parent's know something is off about him regardless if he even knows about his abilities or not," Adam sighed. He leaned against the counter.

"Wonderful," Sharon says sarcastically, putting down her tablet, "what's our play for tomorrow then?"

"I confront the kid you get his parent's agreement," Adam said simply as he pulled the full pitcher out of the coffee maker and poured his mug full and took a huge sip. Sharon snorted a short laugh as she took some coffee for herself.

"Well, easier said than done," she said clinking her mug to Adam's.

* * *

The next day at approximately 12:00 o'clock Adam and Sharon showed back up at the Ross' house, trudging through all the heavy rain. Sharon knocked on the door and Betty slowly opened it up. She smiled shortly and stepped aside to let the two in. She showed them to the living room and they sat down.

"Where's Lenard today?" Sharon said in a bubbly tone, acting friendly in both tone and body language.

"Oh, um, he had to go into work today," Betty said as she sat down int he chair across from them. Sharon frowned sympathetically.

"On a Saturday? Oh, that's just no fair," Sharon says. Betty squirms a little in her seat and clears her throat.

"Last minute patient," is all she says and Adam and Sharon both get a little suspicious. Sharon gives Adam a small signal, simple hand gestures or messages she's taught him that agent's commonly use. Adam found it surprisingly useful and didn't mind the tips the highly experienced agent provided.

"Excuse me, Miss Ross, could you please show me where the ladies room is?" Sharon asked, standing up.

"Oh, of course," Betty said, leading Sharon upstairs. Sharon did not fail to not the small, human sized cracks in the wall and the one shelf on the wooden bookshelf to be broken. Betty led Sharon down the hall. "Here you are," she said gesturing to the bathroom door and Sharon also did not fail to note the purple bruise on the back of Betty's hand. Something went down here. That much was for sure.

While Sharon and Betty were upstairs, Adam opted to look around the room. Adam moved to the other living area and saw a glass case full of newspaper articles, medals, various scribbles or list's and chemical formula's, but one is an odd sort of list set on top of the glass case. Adam picks it up and looks at it. The list contains a listing of various over-the-counter medications, some that Adam knew for sure should not be mixed at all. There was something fishy about all of this and Adam wasn't sure he liked any of it.

A few minutes later Betty and Sharon come back downstairs. "Is your son home today?" Adam asks casually, "Matthew his name is, right?" Betty shifts very uncomfortably.

"He's out with a friend," Betty answers quickly. Too quickly. Adam puts up a facade to match Betty's, albeit his curious.

"In this weather?" Adam asks with his brows furrowed in fake curiosity with real concern, "surely that can't be good." Betty was shrinking in on herself. She was worried and anxious about something and Adam and Sharon were sure she was about to crack.

"Miss Ross," Sharon asked delicately, "is everything here alright?" Sharon asks and Betty sniffles slightly and she looks very distraught.

"Matthew.. had an argument with Lenard and I and he hasn't been back all night," Betty confessed, not wanting to do so and jeopardize Matthew's chances at getting into this great school. Betty sniffles again, tears stinging at the corners of her eyes. "He's never done this before.. he's a good boy, he's not like this," Betty swears, a tear falling. Adam looks at Sharon.

"Other shoe," He says and he walks out.

* * *

James is slightly put on edge when Adam comes back to the hotel room without Sharon; James' mom. Adam really doesn't say much, he just grabs the laptop, sit's down at the table and gets to work.

"Where's my mom?" James asks, suddenly not so nervous considering James suspects that Adam would have said something if she was in fact in trouble.

"With Miss Ross," Adam says as he types something else in then mutters a curse under his breath less than a moment later. James looks a little confused and Rori gets up off the bed and walks closer also out of curiosity.

"What's going on?" James asks and Adam sighs and shoves the laptop back, getting nowhere thus far.

"Okay, I'm not gonna lie to you guys," Adam says as he pushes himself and the chair slightly angled to the side so he can face both Rori and James, "the kids gone dark. Apparently, he didn't really know about his abilities and then there was an accident."

"Oh no," Rori breathes, covering her mouth with her pale hands. Adam nods and sighs.

"Yeah. Anyways, Miss Rogers is still trying to get the full story and meanwhile I am having absolutely no luck with tracking the kid down," Adam said with a scowl on his face. James felt a little helpless. He would help look if they had even somewhat of a clue or idea of where to start searching. "This is just a bit of a mess," said Adam as he rubbed his eyes from the long night last night. Time was of the essence here with a scared, unknown, untrained hybrid child on the loose and Adam's lack of sleep was not helping anyone now.

"Maybe I can help," offered Rori. Adam and James both looked at her. Rori walked closer the to the table and motioned to the laptop. "May I?"Adam got up from the chair and gestured to her as if to say she could give it a go. Rori promptly sat down and began typing away, booting up a new program on the PC. "This is something my dad made. It sync's up every video surveillance camera and triangulates them in the general area and scans for facial recognition. It's.. barely legal." Adam just grinned and shook his head. Stark kid, huh? "Just tell me who you're looking for and I can find 'em with this."

* * *

Matthew walked down another street with no idea how many he's turned down, how many he's passed and how long he's been walking for. So much... So many things had happened, so many things were going, flying through his mind. Every thought mashing against each other and playing over one another like an endless, chaotic loop. Nothing made any sense in his head. Every nerve stung and burned like crazy, but the most irritating part still was the subtle itch in the very back of his mind that he couldn't quite get to. Something was telling him that it was all right there, but there's no was he could reach it now. He was tired and drained mentally. What was going on? How the hell had he did what he did? Why was this happening to him? Why was there blood spilling- Blood?

Matthew hand felt just below his nose to find dark blood pouring out, enough to make him dizzy and feel pretty sick. Which was ironic because Matthew could never once remember being sick before. It begged the question of the various meds again; the ones his parent's forced down his throat. Why?

Matthew was still bleeding. The hot, dark blood stained his light colored shirt and fell onto his jacket. He's definitely had better days... surely he had sometime...

"Are you alright?" Someone asks from not too far behind Matthew. Matthew doesn't stop to answer. He decides to barely acknowledge the question. "Hey." The person grabs Matthew's shoulder lightly. Instantly a memory of the night before floods Matthew's mind. The guilt, the pain and the anger from it washes over him all at once and it's just too much to take all at once. Matthew instantly throws the person off of him, sending the person flying across the street against an iron lamp post. The iron bent from where the man had hit and he fell down into a large puddle of water since it was still if fact very dark and rainy and wet.

"Adam!" Sharon called loudly through the com link in Adam's ear. She was currently perched on the top floor of a small office building, where she'd set up for surveillance. "Are you okay? What happened?" Adam groaned and got up.

"Obviously, I got hit down. This kid packs one hell of a punch. Didn't think I triggered him," Adam answered, speaking lowly so the kid couldn't hear, seeing as he was already visibly in a state of panic and Adam didn't want to distress him more. That blow actually hurt.

"I'm setting loading up a tranq dart now. Be careful in your advances and get him out of my blind spot." Adam shifted his shoulders a little uncomfortably.

"Damn, kid," he swore, "go and bruise my ego why don't ya."

"What the hell?!" Matthew yelled, his eyes wide and what he'd done and even stranger, that this guys hadn't sustained any visible damage from the hit. He had no idea what was going on with anything anymore.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to scare you," Adam says softly, hands out to show he's peaceful and harmless. Adam slowly moves back across the street he was hit across. "I just wanted to make sure you were okay-" Adam cuts himself off with the sight off all that blood on the kids shirt and jacket and the dried blood that was under his nose and over his lips and still more pouring out. That's quite a lot of blood to be lost that way and that surely wasn't a good sign. He's not bruised or cut or injured anywhere visibly so Adam can only assume that this is a result of strain from trigger and affect of his powers. But Adam still isn't quite sure why this is causing him to bleed so heavily. Something's very wrong here and Adam decides he needs to wrap this up quickly and get this kid to a doctor.

"Who- who are you? I don't know you!"

"No," Adam resumes swiftly into the tense conversation, "you don't. Not yet."

"What?!"

"I'm like you," Adam says now onto the sidewalk on the other side of the road near the kid, slowly backing him between the two brick buildings. Adam can see the kids confusion and utter fear in the situation. "Just hear me out.. Have you ever done something explainable when you were angry or stressed or scared? Have you ever noticed that strange moment right before something big goes down where you're shaky and not matter how hard you try you can't sit still? Or how about when you just know something that nobody's ever told you before, but somehow, inexplicably, you just know?" Adam asks, listing traits of both types of meta-humans. By this point the kid had been stunned and frozen in his spot. Still, shocked was probably better than panicked.

"How did you know all that?" The kid questions, this time with curiosity replacing the panic, but anxiousness and fear is still there and all too prominently.

"I know what you're going through. I can help-"

"NO!" He shouts as he lashes out and hits Adam again, this time into a hard brick wall and Adam definitely feels the bruising from that one. Adam scowls after hearing Sharon say through her com that Matthew is, still in fact, in her blind spot and she can't seem to find an angle from with in the building she's in and she can't change locations without running right into the line of fire. So Adam is just about on his own here. "You have No idea what's happening! No idea what I've done! I- I don't even know why I did it! I just- just?!"

"I do know what's happening," Adam says slowly, getting back onto his feet, "I know what's going on. Let me help you."

"GO AWAY!" The kid involuntarily throws another surprisingly well aimed punch at Adam. Adam blocks it, but a radiating pain spreads through his entire forearm still just from the force of the blow. Adam hadn't been in a fight with another meta-human like this in a while. Hell, he hadn't been in an actual fight in a while. He was rusty and so were his powers.

"LISTEN TO ME!" Adam shouts over Matthew and thunder cracks wildly for a minute. Adam grabs the kids arms, just below his shoulders and for the first time Adam notices the strange glowing and changed hue of the kids eyes. "You're sick and hurt! You see this? All this blood? You're causing that right now!"

"I-I don't!-" The blood kept gushing out, even trails of blood dripped out from him eyes, "it won't stop!" Adam could feel the kid shaking under his hands and not out of fear. This was getting very, very bad.

"It's okay," Adam said with as much forced calmness as he could muster. He subtly generated sparks into his right palm, "just calm down." Then Adam pressed his hand to the back of the kids head. Matthew jolted violently before going limp and Adam lowered him down very gently. "Calm down," he said again, gingerly lulling the kid into his arms, trying to assess the damage. He quickly presses the button on the com link in his ear to activate it. "Agent Rogers, I need a S.H.I.E.L.D ambulance ASAP."

* * *

The first thing Matthew noticed when he came to, sorta, was that he had no idea where he was. The room was very high tech, mostly white, silver and blue. There was almost no noise in the room. Just a faint buzz of a few different computer's and the quiet footsteps of someone passing by the room everyone once a while. Matthew was laying comfortably on a high bed with white sheets. His jacket was gone and his shirt had been replaced with a soft, white cotton t-shirt. Matthew stiffly sat up against the clear glass looking bed frame with the plush pillows behind him. There was an I.V set up with various fluids in it standing just left of the bed and a powered down heart rate monitor to the right of him. Matthew felt strange as he tried to breathe in fully. He pulled the wadded gauze out from his nose; it was lightly stained with blood. Matthew threw the old gauze on the glass table next to him and noticed drops of blood smeared on the white tiled floor. That made him nervous.

Just then the glass door off to the far left side of the room slid open and Matthew's head jerked that way immediately. His hand went to his head and he scowled and the bad head rush. A young woman wearing a light, long-sleeved blue blouse partway tucked inside a navy blue pencil skirt. Her long, curly brown hair is down over her shoulders and the black streaks stand out drastically against the light hue of the blue blouse and her light skin. Her light blue-grey eyes are trained behind her thin rimmed glasses on the contents of the papers inside a small manilla folder. As she approaches the bed she looks up at Matthew with a friendly smile on her face. It's very warm and inviting and it's the first smile that Matthew's been offered in a while so it's very welcoming to him. Plus, something about this woman strangely puts Matthew's mind right at ease. He just feels... comfortable. "Hello, my names Serena. You've had quite a day, huh?" She's cheery, yet so empathetic and sincere at the same time.

"You could say that," Matthew answers quietly, his throat dry and hoarse. He assumes that he's been out for a while then. Serena, as if exactly on que, uncaps a water bottle and hands it to him.

"Just drink it slowly," she says as she sets down the folder and sits down on the side of the bed. Matthew does as she says. He's not really thirsty due to the I.V he's well hydrated, but that can't really do too much for a sandpaper dry throat. "So, how are you feeling now?" Matthew has to think about it for a second since he's not quite sure.

"Kinda tingly and numb," he says and Serena laughs lightly and her laugh just seems to cheer you up easily.

"That would be a result of the residual array of unusual mixed medications still in your system. It's all being flushed out as we speak, but it's going to take a while. So you just need to rest up you'll be back to normal in no time," Serena says. Then she get's up and puts a few different medical instruments on the end table from various racks and cabinet's in the room.

"Yeah," Matthew mutters coldly, "normal." Serena looks back and Matthew and a light frown plays on her dark red colored lips.

"None of us are considered to be the social norm per say, but it doesn't mean that it's all bad," Serena says, while rummaging through a high cupboard. She's up her toes looking through it.

"Us?" Matthew inquires, having a feeling this conversation is about to get a whole lot weirder. Serena finds what she's looking for and pulls it out. She looks back at Matthew and her sympathetic frown deepens.

"Oh sweetie, you have absolutely no idea what's going on do you?" she says softly and something about her tone makes Matthew just want to lean back and relax for a while. Then he realizes that, somehow, she's doing something to him. Just by talking to him- no - there's something just radiating off of her. Whatever it is it's just making him feel just so calm and mellow... and kind of tired all of the sudden. Serena walks back over next to the bed and Matthew find's that those feelings only get stronger as she comes closer in the vicinity to him. Matthew wonders if that makes his theory correct- but no, he thinks to himself, shaking his head, that's just crazy. People can't influence emotional neurons!...can they? Matthew's thought were interrupted when Serena asked for Matthew's arm so that she could check his blood pressure. Matthew did as he was told with 0% hesitation. "How much do you remember?" Serena asks as she watches the dial go up on the sphygmomanometer, but it doesn't go up nearly as high as she would have liked it to.

"Most of it. I- I decked some guy...?" Serena's lips twitch upwards into an amused smirk as she takes the sphygmomanometer off of his arm and puts it back on the end table.

"His name is Adam. He's the one that brought you here," Serena said, deciding not to saw flew you here to avoid freaking the kid out, "you were in pretty bad shape when you first got in. You lost quite a bit of blood. You may experience some dizziness, nausea, shortness of breath, fatigue and quite obviously a decrease in blood pressure."

"Where am I?" Matthew asks, assuming by now that he's definitely not it just any regular hospital. Serena sighs lightly, but not in any sort of disappointment and sits down on the end of Matthew's bed.

"We better start at the beginning," she announces.

* * *

"How is he?" Adam asks from beyond the glass wall. Serena left Matthew to try and get some rest and now she and Adam watched behind the tinted glass.

"His vitals are strong. His blood cells are regenerating at an abnormally fast pace even for meta-human standards. The sooner the mixed medications are all out of his system, the sooner we can start to get a clear reading on his various abilities and the extent of the damage the drugs caused," Serena explains, handing Adam her reports even though she doubt's he'll understand half of the things in there. She's surprised when he goes into great detail in asking questions about a lot of it. "Something I forgot to add?" She says as she knows that Adam had been in somewhat of a fight with this kid. Granted Serena did not like to be wrong, but she also would rather be wrong than oblivious when it came to a patient.

"Just something about his eyes," Adam said, turning to a different page in the folder, "the burning green color that they changed into. Just seemed familiar from something I'd heard before." Serena hummed.

"I'd be happy to look into it," she said as she glanced through the glass as she saw the kid was pretty restless in bed right now.

"How's he coping mentally?" Adam asks and he turns back the last page, "nothing here about psychoanalyzing him in here. And here I thought you had just gotten your second degree in psychology. Shame on you," Adam jokingly mocks and Serena purses her lips, amused and rolls her eyes.

"I thought it would be better to let him down easily for now, so I'm keeping him emotionally calm and stable for the time being," Serena answers and the recently restless kid inside the room suddenly losses his tenseness and starts to drift off to sleep easily. Adam nods as he closes up the folder with none of the papers at all in the right order. He found it amusing on how much that drove Serena crazy.

"Probably for the best," Adam agrees, even though he's not so sure how the kids going to react when Serena leaves and all of those unpleasant thoughts and emotions hit him hard again all at once. "I owe you twice now, don't I? Once for calling you in here and for helping with the whole Penance crisis."

"Don't mention it for this one," Serena answers almost immediately, she turns away from the glass to look at Adam, content now with the boy in a deep sleep, "I've met some of those other kids and you've definitely got your work cut out for you. Don't hesitate to call if they need any kind of medical or psychological help." Adam nods approvingly and hands the mixed up file back to Serena. She gives him a look as if she just knows that he's tampered with her paperwork. "Good-bye, Mr. Foster."

"I'll be looking forward to seeing you back here, Ms. Grey."

* * *

Matthew had to endure another few days in the recovery ward. During that time Adam had begun to spend a lot of time with the boy, doing all he could to help him come to terms with his powers and his new life. Regardless if he stayed at S.H.I.E.L.D or not everything would change for him. At first all Matthew wanted was to go home, but now he wasn't sure if he could.

"You have a choice you know," Adam said to Matthew on his last day in the infirmary. They were currently sitting on his bed, playing a card game Adam had showed him how to play recently called BS. 15 cards. You have to place each card down going up in number. If you don't have the cards you could put a false one down since the card are not face up, but if someone thinks you're lying they say "BS" and you are you have to draw five more cards. The goal is to get rid of all your cards. Adam played it a lot with Matthew lately.

"Do I though?" Matthew asks somewhat bitterly, "do I really?" Adam nodded and put down another card.

"Of course you do."

"BS," Matthew said, which also served as his answer. Adam frowned and drew five more cards. Matthew put his card down and Adam followed.

"It's up to you, just know what that means. It'll be hard. Hard as hell. You'll be one you're own and you can't tell a soul about what's been going on with you," Adam states firmly as he arranges his cards.

"So what?" Matthew snaps, throwing his cards down on the bed, "I just sit here and become this places's personal hybrid lab rat?!"

"No," Adam says quickly and rather incredulously. As if he would ever let that happen. "They're only concerned with the fact that you're powers were suppressed for so long. Nobody knows if you're going to be able to cope with it mentally or psychically." Matthew gets up off the bed and turns away from Adam. Tears sting at the corners of his eyes, but he wills them not to fall.

"So either way I might just drop dead? So what the hell does it matter if I stay or go if I'm just going to die?!"

"That's not what I meant," Adam says gently as he too gets up from the bed, but Matthew moves away from him still. Adam sighs. "It's only dangerous if you let the power and the energy get away from you."

"Then what?" Matthew asks, turning around sharply, "and don't you dare give me anymore of your bullshit and lies!" Adam breathes in once before speaking, closing his eyes for a moment.

"It will be slow, you won't know it's happening but it will destroy you," Adam says lowly. Matthew crosses his arms and closes in on himself.

"Unless I can control it?"

"Unless you get help," Adam cuts in, moving towards Matthew quick enough so that he can't just move to avoid him again and very gently putting a hand on his shoulder, "let me help you."

* * *

"So he decided to stay then?" Maria Hill asked as Adam was getting his final debriefing and S.H.I.E.L.D clearance and all that so he could officially take the position. To Adam all it really boiled down to was a crap ton of paper work and about one-hundred thousand background checks. But now it was finally over. Got his final contract signed and filed today. No matter if he liked it or not he was stuck her for the six year remainder.

"Yeah," Adam answered simply, but then remembered that this was Agent Maria Hill and that maybe he should elaborate a bit, "it took a while, but in the end being here at S.H.I.E.L.D is what's safest for him and everyone else at least while he get's a handle on his abilities."

"Dr. Grey has actually been looking into his abilities. So far she's deduced that he's got advanced regenerative properties, increased metabolism, reinforced psychical stability, a natural enhanced processing of images." Adam whistled lowly at the list. "And a genome far too complex to crack. With the whole host of drugs, that were previously suppressing these abilities, we have no idea what kind of superhuman abilities could manifest," Maria states a little nervously.

"That's why I'm here," Adam says as they walk up the marble steps to the octagon shaped house where the teens all were.

"You ready to face hell?" Maria asks with a subtle grin.

"Sure. Why not?" Adam said with a shrug and a dramatic tone, "I suppose I've lived an interesting enough life."

"It hasn't even begun," Maria says, shaking her head as she watches Adam walk inside.

The first thing Adam notes it that all of the kids have their respective silver, blue and black cases out in front of them, anxious to see what's inside. Their all sitting at a round table downstairs in raised, side area in the training room.

"Okay then, so if you're all here," Adam says, clasping his hands together as he moves in front of them all and grins "let's begin, shall we?"


	12. Episode 6 (Let's Get Moving Pt 1)

_Previously on **"Dangerous Games"...**_

 _"Interesting.. So, the seven candidates have already been contacted, S.H.I.E.L.D will be contacting them in person to-"_

 _"No," Adam said over her; Maria looked incredulous, "a bunch of suits approaching nervous, insecure, scared kids won't go over well. It would be better if someone more relate able reached out to them."_

 _"These..." Adam began, "These kids are all in High School."_

 _"Correct," Maria answered with a gentle nod. She couldn't tell whether Adam was appalled or agreed. His expression stayed oddly impartial from a kid who used to show everything on his face and wear his heart on his sleeve._

 _"I was just expecting these potential candidates would be closer to my age."_

 _"They won't be considered mission ready for years. It's a six year project," Maria answered simply. Adam paused for a moment and then nodded._

 _Maria stood up and held her hand out for Adam to shake, "welcome to the real S.H.I.E.L.D, Mr. Foster. They way it's suppose to be."_

 _"You," J.P only states numbly. Adam nods, closing his eyes for a moment. Adeline moves to sit down quickly. "What is?-"_

 _"He's with them," Adeline states, cryptically, plaguing her younger brother with confusion. "S.H.I.E.L.D."_

 _"Well, you could have been here yesterday," J.P all but snapped which only earned his a slap on the shoulder from hopes that her hot-headed brother won't ruin this for them, she's surprised at the man's casual demeanor. Adam looked down and hummed once._

 _"And I should have been. That was my first mistake." The siblings glance at each other once._

 _"S.H.I.E.L.D tells me you were going to meet up with us, what happened?" Adam asked, sounding so sympathetic._

 _"Our debt with the Ringmaster," Adeline explains after a bout of silence ensues._

 _"It's fixable," Adam said casually. Both of the siblings shook their head in time._

 _"It's more than money.."_

 _"Well, that seems to be all he wanted during the show," Adam shot back, but not cruelly, just factually. "If I could let you both out of this little deal, would you still come with me?" The siblings looked at each other again._

 _"Of course," Adeline concluded finally, "but be careful, it will not be easy." Adam began to walk out, as his back was turned to them they missed the knowing smirk._

 _"Meta-human: Alice Belova, 16 years old and a high school student all the way from Russia, considered to be the Black Widow match up."_

 _Although it doesn't matter all too much because what happens next sends them both into shock. The man bends back and he's completely morphed into a puff of black smoke. He flies through, knocking Alice down on the way to the other side of the garage._

 _"What the hell?!" Adam shouts, not really expecting tonight to be a meta-human brawl. The man morphs back to humanly normal and throws a huge iron wrench at Adam. Adam, luckily, is able to create a wind barrier in front of himself to parry the heavy tool. The man laughs, but nods, impressed still._

 _"Впечатляет. Вы бесчеловечных. Ты ... One of us," he praises, the last part in weak or broken English._

 _"We're all just human, pal, time to cut your losses."_

 _"Canary Morse, apparently she's the Hawkeye match up."_

 _"Agent Foster. S.H.I.E.L.D meta-human associate," Adam said formally. Canary was a little stunned but grasped his hand numbly._

 _"Canary," she says back, having a feeling that he already knows who she is, "and do you really expect me to remember all that?" He snickers._

 _"Well, that is the official term. Just Adam works fine."_

 _"And you're from S.H.I.E.L.D.. both of you?" Adam looks back at Alice, who stays most silent and nods as an answer for both of them. Canary grins lightly. This is perfect. This is just what she needed._

 _"James, this is Rori Stark. Rori, this is James Rogers," Adam says as James walks up into the quin-jet, entirely packed up for the rest of the year for Meta-Human High; Rori's new running pun._

 _"I don't know why people say that twice, with reversed names, if both people are in fact standing right there," Rori jokes. Adam shrugs._

 _"It's nice to meet you, Rori, Agent Foster."_

 _"Oh my god.." Adam breathes, "this kid.. he's a hybrid. Hulk match-up."_

 _"What the hell?!" Matthew yelled, his eyes wide and what he'd done and even stranger, that this guys hadn't sustained any visible damage from the hit. He had no idea what was going on with anything anymore._

 _"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to scare you," Adam says softly, hands out to show he's peaceful and harmless. Adam slowly moves back across the street he was hit across. "I just wanted to make sure you were okay-" Adam cuts himself off with the sight off all that blood on the kids shirt and jacket and the dried blood that was under his nose and over his lips. That's quite a lot of blood to be lost that way and that surely wasn't a good sign. He's not bruised or cut or injured anywhere visibly so Adam can only assume that this is a result of strain from trigger and affect of his powers. But Adam still isn't quite sure why this is causing him to bleed so heavily. Something's very wrong here and Adam decides he needs to wrap this up quickly and get this kid to a doctor._

 _"Who- who are you? I don't know you!"_

 _"No," Adam resumes swiftly into the tense conversation, "you don't. Not yet."_

 _"What?!"_

 _"I'm like you."_

 _"You ready to face hell?" Maria asks with a subtle grin._

 _"Sure. Why not?" Adam said with a shrug and a dramatic tone, "I suppose I've lived an interesting enough life."_

 _"It hasn't even begun," Maria says, shaking her head as she watches Adam walk inside._

 _The first thing Adam notes it that all of the kids have their respective silver, blue and black cases out in front of them, anxious to see what's inside. Their all sitting at a round table downstairs in raised, side area in the training room._

 _"Okay then, so if you're all here," Adam says, clasping his hands together as he moves in front of them all and grins "let's begin, shall we?"_

* * *

Matthew was curled up tightly in his bed, having a pretty brutal nightmare. Again. He just couldn't get them to stop no matter how hard he tried. Adam had promised him that it was just the large residual amount drugs messing with his head still and that it would stop soon. Although Matthew had only gone a week and he wasn't sure how much more he could take.

He saw so many violent, bloody, gruesome images ranging from death and destruction, normal nightmare things. But most recently he'd dream about his parent's. Telling him the worst sort of things, that he was broken and that they didn't want him back and that if he even went near them they would hurt him and then it would trigger Matthew's powers and he would beat them so badly that they would die in the hospital! And- and then the entire world would know he was a hybrid and they would all try to kill him! AND THEN IT WOULD GET EVEN WORSE! AND!-

"Hey," Alice snapped, slurring with her thick accent late in the night. She threw a pillow at Matthew's head and he woke up with a start, breathing hard. "You're loud," Alice scolded as she had the room right next to him, "I'd actually like to sleep," she scowled. Matthew was still out of breath.

"Sorry," he muttered. Alice nodded and went back to bed. Matthew laid back down, curled up tight and unable to relax. He started out pretty calm, but every day he's been getting worse and worse. Matthew decided that maybe it would be best to distract himself. He went back to the event's of last nigh. The first time they had all gathered.

 _They all looked suspiciously at their various cases. The S.H.I.E.L.D logo on the top middle of every case lit up and shined brightly to display a hologram of the insignia, but as they spun, each one changed to a different symbol. For example Canary's was an arrow, James' was a circular shield, Alice's was an hourglass, Adam's was a triquetra and so on and so forth. Soon after that the light faded out completely and instantly. The kids all looked confused until the moment after when a strange click came from all of the cases._

 _"Did they just open?" Rori said, voicing her curiosity out loud. Some of the other shrugged and tugged at the top of their cases and to some's surprise they came open. Inside each of them first and foremost was a suit. And not something classy or nice, but a full on combat suit, each styled a little differently, but they all had dark rivets on the seems right now. They were dark and dead looked though._

 _"What so special about these?" JP says, a little bored. He picks up the fabric and ignites his hand with kinetic energy and puts it to the suit._

 _"Jay!" Adeline scold, because she's afraid he'll just fry it, but to her and many of the other surprise, the energy just radiates over the suit, bouncing and thriving over every inch of fabric._

 _"...Wow," James sounds as he looks over his own suit, doubting it'll do anything nearly so interesting. Each of them have something new. Adeline's for example had a unique stylistic belt that, when worn only by her, can create a telekinetic shield surrounding her whole body by cycling with the energy of her own powers. Rori's was 100% fireproof so she wouldn't incinerate her clothes by heating up. That was a big relief. Adam's had bits of iron armor thrown in over his own black leather/spandex suit. Gold and bronze plates accented it. No doubt to add an Asgardian flare to it and also to help generate the electrical currents of his powers._

 _"So," Rori says, twirling her suit around, "who else want's to play dress up?"_

_Dangerous Games_

"I really have to admire your work on the suits," Adam said as he walked with Maria through one of the various S.H.I.E.L.D R&D labs, this one however was dedicated specifically to project Next Avenger. Adam was pretty surprised and the amount of work and funding that they'd put into this project. Into a crazy group of seven kids. Adam moved out of the way of someone carrying a tray with beakers full of...god only knows what, but there were smoking.

"It took a while to genetically engineer them all to sync up with the kids bio-signatures and enhanced abilities, but they should all serve their purpose."

"I assume it would take a while," Adam say, eyeing another canister full of...whatever. This place kinda made him nervous. It was like a lab from an alien ship and he had no idea what the hell they were doing. "Making them fire retardant, shock retardant, bullet proof and whoever else knows what's in them. I have to ask though, what did you put in Matthew Ross'?" Maria lead Adam over to another metal table with various pieces of tech on it. She picks up and hands a tiny circular chip to Adam.

"These are tiny radioactive inhibitors sewn into the fabric that should help to stabilize his abilities," Maria answers. Adam's brows knit and he looks back up and Maria.

"How did you know that his abilities were unstable?" Adam questions. Maria shrugged it off and marker something else off on the list she had open on her S.H.I.E.L.D pad as one of the scientist's showed something to her.

"You must have filed it in your report-"

"No, no, no," Adam said, cutting her off, "these suits were already inside the cases. You knew who they were going to, you sent them out." Maria stood taller and set her tablet down.

"Mr. Foster, what are you trying to gain with these implications?" Maria questions, almost daring him to snap back.

"Nothing," Adam said, slamming the inhibitor chip back down on the iron table, "well.. that's not exactly true."

"What is it this time?" Maria questions, crossing her arms and quirking an eyebrow.

"The kids evaluation is this week."

"And..?"

"I want to call in someone else," Adam says and Maria sighs and puts her fingers to her temples.

"We've already decided whose going to be evaluating them for the index. You can't be involved because you're considered emotionally attached since you currently live with them," Maria explained, exasperated and annoyed since they had already been over this several times.

"Not me," Adam said, getting onto his phone and swiping through the list of S.H.I.E.L.D contact files. Adam flips the phone around shows Maria the file. She scrunches her eyes to see the smaller print.

"You think you can get Agent S. here to NYC with in 4 hours?" Maria asks, incredulous.

"Only if I ask nicely," Adam says with a small knowing smirk, retracting his arm and putting the phone back into his pocket, "am I to take this as a yes then?" Maria sighed, getting a major migraine.

* * *

Hours later on that afternoon, by the time it was 7:00 pm, Maria Hill had made her way over to explain things to them on Adam's request. She could tell these kids were rambunctious to say the least. Maria wasn't even going to bring up the earthquake around their house last night.

"You'll each undergo several different tests to evaluate your skill and abilities. The duration of this will be roughly 5-7 hours and you'll receive your results within 24. Now each test will be administered to you alone and no one but, Adam Foster, myself and you will know anything on your results. Any questions?" JP raised his hand. "Yes?"

"Please tell me there will be no math involved." Some of the kids snickered. Maria sighed. Still, they were no more childish than the original Avengers and these guys actually were kids.

"No. Nothing exactly academic will be involved in this evaluation," Maria answered and JP grinned and put his feet up on the table.

"Sounds like my kind of test then." Maria almost smirked. Almost.

"We'll see." And with that all the kids glance around at each other, not sure what to expect from the secretive S.H.I.E.L.D agent. "But for right now I just need Miss Morse to come with me."

"Me?" Canary asked and she was getting looks from all of the others right now, some clearly wondering if she'd done something wrong. Maria nodded and Canary did not question her further, so she followed the agent out of the house.

* * *

Canary walked into a small room that honestly looked exactly like the interrogation rooms that you'd see on TV cop shows. Canary looked around before slowly taking a seat and sitting down. She dropped her brown backpack onto the floor next to her seat. Canary tapped her fingers on the bolted down metal table in front of her as she impatiently waited. Soon someone finally walked in. She had dark brunette hair, light brown eyes and an exterior that just screamed bad ass. She had a manilla folder tucked under her arm. She walked in swiftly, sat down, set down the file and brushed a stray curl out of her eyes.

"Hey, I'm Agent Samantha S. but you're going to just call me Agent S. or Agent Samantha."

"Yes, Ma'am," Canary answered immediately. Samantha scoffed and leaned back in her metal chair.

"I am barely older than you are, kid. Drop the Ma'am it makes me feel old," said Samantha as she picked the file up and opened it. "What's your name?"

"Canary," she answered, "well, it's not my real name, just what everyone calls me.." Canary could have cursed herself for rambling. What was about about this chick that had Canary stuttering? She didn't know really. Samantha shrugged and moved right on ahead.

"Says here that you were enrolled in the Fort Stevens Military Academy. What made you decide that?"

"Honestly," Canary started, biting her lip for a second, "my parent's.." Samantha gave Canary a look as if to say elaborate. "They were both S.H.I.E.L.D agents. High class and I guess they knew how dangerous and crazy this world really is. Enough to make them way paranoid about it and me." Samantha nodded and after a moment she sighed and threw the files behind her and let the papers scatter on the floor.

"Look, I'm not going to waste your or my time with this boring informational crap because we both know those obvious answers. I'm only really here to find out one thing; Are you up for this?" Canary hesitates for a minute and then nods. "Are you?" Samantha asks again, a bit more strait forward and questioning this time. "Let's just get the facts strait right now; you're 16, you're the only one here without powers or abilities, they already recruited another girl as a super agent for this little rag tag team. What business do you really even have being here?" This was like a slap across the face for Canary. Damn this woman was hardcore. Canary didn't know what to do, she just looked down at her lap for a while. She really had to contemplate all of this. The last week had been kind of a blur in Canary's eyes. Between Penance, meeting Alice, Adam and the others, the missing girls and getting recruited to S.H.I.E.L.D; it was all a lot to take in by anyone's standards.

"...I don't know why me," Canary answered honestly, speaking in a low tone of voice and unusually timid for her, "there were a ton of guys back at the Academy who were much better than me.. more experienced. Who probably have a lot more to give than me. But S.H.I.E.L.D chose me for some reason so that means I have to give whatever I got and run it into the ground because I said yes.."

"Just because you said yes?" Samantha questioned, crossing her arms, "this gig isn't permanent. The door is right there ya know," Samantha said as she jerked her thumb towards the large metal door on the far left corner.

"For me it is," Canary answered in a slightly more confident tone this time around, " and I don't think I would ever feel right for just walking away. Without giving S.H.I.E.L.D or myself a chance." Samantha grinned.

"Okay."

"Okay?" Canary resounded, probably sounding pretty confused. She gazed at Samantha and only saw the prominent grin on her lips widening. "This-.. Was this just a test?" Canary asked, astounded. Samantha laughed lightly amused at Canary's shocked expression. "Unbelievable."

"Well you passed if it's any consolation," Samantha stated as she got up from the iron chair, "with flying colors actually."

"Did you do this to the others?" Canary asked whilst picking up her back and slinging a strap over her shoulder.

"Nope," Samantha deadpanned and Canary flashed her another confused look. Samantha rolled her eyes, albeit in an amused sort of way. "Orders," was Samantha's only explanations. Canary quirked an eyebrow. Samantha opened up the door from the interrogation room and lead Canary out.

"Orders?" Canary repeats a little distastefully, "for some odd reason you don't strike me as the kind of girl to follow them flawlessly. Maybe not even a whole lot at all." It was disrespectful. Blunt in every sense of the word, but Samantha seemed completely coll with it. In fact she smirked.

"Orders from real high up. Gotta be on my best behavior for now," Samantha says nonchalantly. After that Samantha proceeded to walk Canary back to the silver octagon house since. It may have been only early fall, but the air was bitter and chilling. Canary wasn't quite used to it coming from Oregon and all.

"You're running the evaluation?" Canary asked simply for trying to start a conversation and break the semi-awkward silence.

"Yeah," Samantha said and Canary couldn't really tell if she was pleased about it or not, "I owe Foster a few favors. Mainly from the Red Room..." Canary did not fail to notice her trailing off. She nearly stopped in her tracks from surprise. Yeah, she'd heard of it before from her Mother.

"You mean...like the Soviet KBG?" Samantha flashed Canary an almost hard look, silently questioning her on where she could have possibly heard this, but after a few tense moments, she lets it go.

"Yeah, something like that," Samantha responds dryly. Canary can still feel the air around them is tense. She wracks her brain for something- anything else to say.

"Can we fail the evaluation?" Canary asks, returning to an old topic. It relieves Canary to see Samantha snort a short laugh.

"You're cute, kid. Anyways, here's your stop." Canary nods and walks up the steps. She stops when she notices a building to the far left that she hadn't really noticed much before. Canary walked to the edge of the steps to get a better look. It was only 9:00 pm at night, Canary saw no real trouble of going to look around. Canary moves back down the steps and approached the building. She only has to walk a short distance there from her dorm or house or whatever it was suppose to be considered. Canary's fingers curl around the cold, iron handle. She twists it and goes inside and then walks into an incredibly large training room. Canary was in pure awe right now and she whistled lowly. It was dark in there. Real dark, but Canary found a large control panel off behind a glass half wall and she was able to turn on some more lights from there. She walked through to see nearly every kind of combat anything was accessible here. Shooting range, combat rings, obstacle courses, a rack with more unorthodox weapons, even an area labeled designated for survival training. Canary walked closer to it, she had her hand on the handle and tried to pull it open. It was locked of course. Pad locked.

"It's a VR room," someone said behind Canary and she was so startled as to whip around and nearly hit the guy. He stepped back quickly. "Whoa, sorry. Didn't mean to freak ya out," he said in an amused tone and Canary lost her defensive edge. It was just a random dude... stalking around this place late at night just like she was... that was perfectly normal, right?

"What's a VR room?" Canary asks instead to avoid awkwardness that was sure to ensue if she tried to play this all out normally.

"Virtual Reality room. It's for advanced training only, or so I hear. You're one of the member on project Next Avenger, right?" Canary nodded casually, regaining her casual demeanor.

"Yeah, my names Canary."

"Canary," he resounds, testing it out for himself, "that's pretty cool. I'm Jackson," he says introducing himself and holding out his hand to her. Canary takes and shakes it.

"Are you part of this to?"

"Nah, I'm just an intern agent here to help Agent Hill with surveying training and documenting progress reports. Nothing special really," he answers with a shrug. Canary puts her hands in her pocket and looks down at her feet, scuffing her combat boots on the tiles floor. "I really should get back to work, but I guess I'll being seeing you around."

"Says the guy whose obviously gonna be watching me," says Canary with a wink as she walks off again. No matter what anyone says it's not flirting. Canary wasn't into that. At least not into that with a him. Canary, after that encounter, walked back to the house and decided to call it a day.

* * *

"Oh, so it's you again," Misty Warren said from behind the bar. Adam had just walked in and sat down on one of the high, torn, leather bar stools. "What'll it be tonight?" Adam shrugged, looking pretty tired. Misty flashed him a crooked, sympathetic frown. "I'll bring you something good. Maybe a nightcap. You look like you could use one."

"You have no idea," Adam answers and he leans one arm down on the bar and lays the side of his head in his hand. Misty put down a napkin and put a small glass with a small shot of liquor inside. Adam smiled shortly.

"So what's been going on with you?" Misty asks, seeming very sympathetic towards the young man. Adam sighs. Seeing no point in lying to her.

"I've recently got a new job," Adam says and Misty looks like she's expecting a particular story already, "working with troubled teenagers." And then Misty's expression instantly changes. She smiles legitimately.

"Kids, huh? Hard work, more than hard, but even more than worth it," Misty says before she goes to hand someone else their ordered beverage.

"You seem like you know the feeling," Adam states and he finally decides to down his drink. Misty grins and takes his empty shot glass to refill it.

"I do," Misty says as she sets another shot glass down on the damp napkin, "I have a son. He's one and a half now." Adam grins and nods. It now all made sense to him. Poor young woman stuck in a bar like this every night to support her son and by the way Misty was flirting with him last time Adam was willing to bet that she was a single mother as well.

"What's his name?" Adam asks and Misty is a little stunned by the fact that someone actually showed some interest. Misty thought that Adam was far too good for this place.

"Samuel Louis," Misty says, listing both his first and middle name. Adam nods and his grin widens.

"You sound damn lucky," Adam says, making a mental note to leave a ridiculously large tip. Misty hums lightly as an answer.

"Sometimes," she answers shortly. Adam takes notice of the time and decides that he better get back to the house because lord only knows if he were gone too long that those kids would start ripping each others throats out. Adam gets up off the uneven bar stool and throws many bills down on the bar top and then turns to leave. Misty notices that Adam dropped his drivers licence out of his wallet. She looks at the name, since he would never tell her what it was, then she runs around the bar.

"Wait!" She calls out just as he's about to head outside. Adam turns around to be met with Misty running over. She out-stretches her hand and Adam lets out an airy, amused laugh.

"Would you believe I've lost this damn thing three times?"

"Probably," Misty answers with a smirk. Adam takes it and as he does his and Misty's fingers touched ever so lightly. Misty stiffens and her eyes gloss over white in a second. The grey of her eyes barely visible anymore. Adam is confused by how shaky her hand is. He looks up at her face, but by then whatever had struck was already over. Misty breathes out heavily and recomposes herself in an instant.

"...I better go," Adam says after a moment, very suspicious of the young woman.

"Right," Misty says, moving her hands down to smooth her black apron, "make sure you watch that boy Matthew real closely," she says before moving back behind the bar quickly. Adam watches her go and his light blonde eyebrows knit together in confusion. He hadn't gone into specifics with the kids he worked with, had he? Adam resigned himself to putting it away for tonight and driving back to the house.


	13. Episode 6 (Let's Get Moving Pt 2)

"I'm telling you, Maria. The basic S.H.I.E.L.D protocol won't work in this instance," Samantha insisted indefinitely when she, Adam and Agent Maria Hill were alone in the seriously creepy lab; renamed by Adam. It was late and they were still battling back and forth on this particular point.

"Won't work or you two don't want it to work," Maria inquired and Samantha glanced at Adam, he gestured for her to keep going.

"Won't," Samantha said surely, "you can perform all of the medical psychical's and psychical enhancement tests, but you can't test them in the field like you would for two reasons. Number one, they're children for crying out loud. Two, they're all superhuman, Maria, you and I both know this test never even affected me." Maria stayed silent for a second then nodded. Adam could have questioned that if asking Samantha to convince Maria Hill was near blackmail since they knew each other so well. Adam knew that Maria Hill might just bite your head off if you went slack on the formalities while she was still considered on duty.

"Alright," Maria says finally, "I would say that S.H.I.E.L.D would alter the program, but something so oddly tells me that you two already have something up your sleeves." Samantha and Adam both smirked.

"Something like that," Adam said and Maria felt that migraine coming back.

* * *

"I think it's just over here," said Canary, leading the band of kids to the building she had been to last night. Adam had sent Canary a text saying for all of them to meet him in the training facility building and to hurry. So they all made their way over there since it was unusually urgent for Adam since he was usually so relaxed.

"Yeah," said James as he read the writing on the door. He twisted the handle but it was stuck. "Locked," he announced distastefully. Most of the group stood still for a minute and this obvious impasse already.

"I got it," said Canary as she pulled a pin out of her hair and shoved it into the old-style lock of the door and jiggled it around until the tumbler clicked open. Alice snorted a short laugh.

"Mighty S.H.I.E.L.D security taken down by a seventeen year old girl and a hair pin. Wonderful," she said with amusement and her usual amount of sarcasm. The gang walked inside.

"Damn it all, it's pitch black in here," JP cursed as he knocked his knee against something.

"The light switch isn't working," Canary declared after throwing the thing up and down several times, but with, obviously, no avail. The all whipped around as the only source of light behind them, the open door, suddenly snapped closed.

"Okay, why does this feel like some 20th century horror movie and that we're all about to die?" said Matthew says openly into the darkness.

"Now what?" Adeline asks, only able to be aware of the people around them by tapping into their wave links.

"I got an idea," said Rori, speaking for the first time. Under her thin, pale skin began to illuminate and show off at least ten feet around her. Under her skin her veins looked like the were pumping pure light and fire.

"Nicely done," said James as he admired her abilities and looked around the still dim room. Rori grinned and winked and she lead them through the dark space with Alice standing closely by her and everyone else was pretty well spread out from one another.

"Why would Adam be here?" Asked Adeline, voicing several of the groups curiosity.

"The guys part psycho already," said Matthew wryly, "he could just be leading us all to out deaths right now," he said with a joking grin. One that still made Adeline cringe a little.

"That's not funny."

"Oh, lighten up, cupcake. You can't honestly tell me that you're scared," mocked Alice in a taunting tone. Adeline huffed in annoyance.

"I am _Not_ scared," she protested and Alice only laughed.

"Whatever you say," she said waving Adeline off, which only made the silver haired teenager even more heated.

"I already said I wasn't!-" then something creaked in the room, iron to be exact, and only moments after the creaking was heard an iron beam crashed down in between the group, throwing several of them back in opposite directions.

Adeline landed hard onto the floor on one different side of them room. She groaned and sat up, seeing that the beam had in fact trapped them on this side of the strange space. "Now I'm scared," she muttered lightly. She was completely enclosed in darkness again. She stood up and put her hands out around her and felt she was in an open space. She felt someone from the groups wave link near to her, but it wasn't JP's and now she was worried. Adeline face-palmed. Duh! she thought as she amassed swirling white lights around both of her hands, thus illuminating the small space. She then cast both of the whimsical beams and the iron column that had previously collapsed in front of energy from Adeline's powers only made the column creak and scathed the outside minimally. Adeline's jaw set in anger. She pulled up more up her power and tried again, only succeeding in creating several dents in the metal. This would take ages to bring down.

"I don't think that's gonna work," said one of the boys from the group. Adeline formed lights around her hands to see who it was. Matthew, she thought his name was, the most recent addition to their little gang. He had a large cut on his forehead, jutting down diagonally across his right brow to be in line with his eye. The bottoms of his left pant leg also had some blood on it. Adeline realized then that she was lucky to have come out completely unharmed from that and now she worried even more for her younger brother.

"Yeah, figured that out already," she snapped harshly and then quickly felt guilty about it. She moved over to help Matthew up onto his feet. He swayed a little.

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah," Matthew answered quickly, "nothing that won't heal." Adeline nodded as she saw the cut on his head had already started to scab over, which would be considered impossible since he had received the injury only maybe five minutes prior; but of course Adeline herself could move freaking objects with her mind so who was she to say that this was out of them realm of possibility? "We're completely sectioned off," Matthew grumbled miserably, breaking Adeline's string of thought.

"Yeah, I found that out the hard way," she muttered, crossing her arms in annoyance.

"You think anyone was under when the beam crashed down?" Matthew asked hesitantly. Adeline stayed absolutely frozen for a moment and Matthew wondered whether she was considering it or maybe that she was more horrified by the fact than he was.

"No," she said finally, "no one was," she elaborated and Matthew looked slightly confused. "I can pick up seven different wave links. Faint to my reach, but all there. We're all safe." Matthew chewed his lower lip for a second and looked pretty uneasy.

"Don't be so sure," he said which immediately called Adeline's attention to the statement, "there's only six, plus you, of us here and you said seven wave links." Adeline felt a shiver run down her spine. Next she shook her head, brushing it off.

"But that could just be Adam, right?" She asked and Matthew shrugged skeptically.

"I don't really think he was ever in here," Matthew answered quietly with an added hint of something just too faint to pick up on.

"How do you know what?" Adeline asked immediately after Matthew's statement was formed. Matthew said nothing at first. He hadn't forgotten about what Adam about hybrid's and their unusual senses. Adam's particular signature was something Matthew was oddly in tuned to since their fight back in D.C. It was like a strangely dejected part of him couldn't forget it for some reason. A strangely violent dejected part of him. Matthew then realized Adeline was staring at him, waiting for an answer. He figured he'd better say something quick to remove suspicion. She was still staring. Something. Anything!

"It just seemed too convenient," Matthew decided on after about a half a minute. Adeline paused for a moment then nodded.

"Yeah, you're right. I mean, why would Adam go through all the trouble to save us just to try to get us killed? It does seem strange." Matthew let out a low breath and hummed in agreement.

"So," Adeline said, clasping her hands in front of her, "any idea on how to get out of this nutshell?" Matthew looked around for a moment. The lighting was so dull and he could barely see ten feet in front of him with Adeline's silver lights. However, Matthew soon got an idea.

"There," he said pointing to a rope climbing wall that had a rectangular opening at the top where it was tied.

"Yes!" Adeline exclaimed as she slowly started to move towards it with Matthew on her heels, "one of the S.H.I.E.L.D handbooks I read had a sketch of this place. It has multiple levels." She gripped the rough rope with both of her hands and pulled herself up with her feet stepping on rope knots lower down.

"At least one of us read that dumb thing," Matthew muttered as he to started up the rope wall. Adeline rolled her eyes and sighed as she climbed up even higher.

* * *

"Where do you think the others are?" Asked Rori to Canary whom she had been sent off with when the beam collapsed. That instantly made Rori nervous since she could tell that there is no one that anything in this structure should be breaking down. It was only five years old! She knew the only way for something like that to happen was for it to be tampered with.

"The hell if I know," said Canary with a shrug, "let's just hope none of them became superhuman pancakes when the beam crashed down." Rori shuddered at the thought since she and Alice were right in front of the beam when it collapsed, yet Alice was nowhere to be seen which made Rori very anxious. "I'm sure they're fine," said Canary causally lying to try and allay Rori's fears, which were obvious since they flames under her skin seemed to pick up after Canary's last comment.

"Yeah," Rori stuttered lowly. She the screeched as she bumped into something. Canary whipped her head back then laughed at what it was.

"Chill. Just a weapons rack, darlin'," she mused as she walked back to where Rori was. Canary frowned at their options, "not a very good weapons rack though. Who considers a bow & arrow a legit weapon anymore?"

"Maybe it's for improving aim," Rori suggested since this was in fact a training facility. Albeit a very creepy training facility at the moment.

"Still doesn't help us much," Canary whined as she picked up a nice titanium bow with a black string infused with fiber glass, "but better than nothing." Canary picks up a quiver from the line of them laying on the floor and slips it over her shoulder along with the string of the bow around the other shoulder and sighs. She and Rori start walking again.

"Don't worry. When I bump into a rack filled with SMG repeaters I'll let you know." Canary snorts at Rori's comment.

"Dang girl," says Canary as they move around some target boards in the room, "you definitely know your rifles." Rori shrugs very lightly and slightly nervously.

"I know I don't generally look like the type of girl that would," she answers, "but my Dad used to build weapons."

"I thought that he stopped that like a billion years ago," said Canary as she pulled Rori slightly to the left to avoid tripping on an arrow down on the floor.

"He did," Rori answered and silently thanked Canary to help her avoid, almost inevitable, clumsiness. "That's why I figured I better educate myself to find out why... I know now." And Canary left it at that. The silence became heavy between the two usually talkative girls. There was a noise behind them; footsteps then metal clattering against the floor. Canary and Rori whipped their heads back, but couldn't see far enough into the darkness to identify the noise. Canary pushed Rori down back a little ways and drew her bow.

"Back it up!" She called and the two footsteps instantly stopped and and jumped back.

"Whoa! Chill out ya freak!" Yelled a boy in shock. Canary didn't yet let her arms go slack.

"JP?" She asked into the darkness and not a moment later did JP and James walk into Rori's extended light.

"Depends, if I say yes are you still planning to skewer me with a freaking arrow!" Canary rolls her eyes and puts her arms down.

"Haven't decided yet," she teases, "what happened to you guys? You were literally right near me before the beam tried to flatten us out."

"The beam bent," James explained, "it crashed down on part of the floor and threw JP and I down into the sub-levels. It was easily a twenty foot drop and could have been a lot worse if JP hadn't made that force-field thing-y last second." JP smirked.

"Yeah, I'm just that awesome." Canary rolled her eyes and slung her bow back over her shoulder.

"Did you see any of the others?" Rori asked as she was now standing at Canary's side again.

"If we did do you think we would have shown up here just the two of us?" James questioned, crossing his arms since it was freezing in the freaking training room wreck. Rori bit her upper lip.

"What's that look for, red?" Asked JP. Rori looked around at the three other kids and sighed shakily.

"You said the beam bent. There is no way a twenty something foot beam made and filled with titanium just bent from impact to a concrete floor and to create that opening at that distance it would have had to bend before impact."

"Wait," said James, putting his hands out again, mildly freaked by Rori's conclusion, possibly assumptions, "you think this was sabotage?"

"Seems like it," Rori squeaked quietly. Canary threw her hands up.

"Wonderful. Just wonderful," she said scowling.

"S.H.I.E.L.D could literally be trying to kill us right now," JP said lowly, "and that's all you have to say?!"

"This whole thing could have been a huge set up to get us killed!" Rori chimed in, equally freaked.

"But that doesn't make any sense! If S.H.I.E.L.D wanted to kill is they could have sent people in here to gun us down at any time," Canary said over them.

"Whose to say that they won't?!" JP shouted.

"Guys! Chill!" James yelled loudly into the space. "We clearly have no idea what's going on or why and I don't think we're going to figure it out trapped in here."

"He's right," sounded Canary immediately after James' statement, "we just need to find the others and get the hell out of here."

* * *

"Ow!" Matthew cried and Adeline whipped her head back, the white lights at her hands glowing a bit lighter with anticipation. They died down again once she saw that Matthew had only been clumsy with in the darkness and set his hand down a couple of throwing knives, slicing his palm. Adeline grimaced.

"You okay?" She asked even though it was a fairly stupid question. Matthew cursed under his breath.

"Yeah, sure, whatever," he grumbled and Adeline only nodded slowly and unsure. Matthew decided after a minute to take and pocket the two knives that had cut him. He had speculation that this was in no way an accident. It was just too convenient in all definitions of the word. He had a feeling that the whole hybrid instinct thing would protect him if things came to blows, but still he felt he couldn't really rely on it if he really didn't even know what it was so he decided that he didn't want to be left with nothing.

Soon the two heard running up behind them. Full on running.

"Hey!" Adeline called and the sound echoed. The running didn't stop. Adeline threw a few of her white beams in the direction. The person rolled under them with ease.

"Going to _sparkle_ me to death, Cupcake?"

"Alice?" Matthew asked, since his eyes were still readjusting from Adeline's blast of lights passing right in front of him.

"Да, это я," she answered. Matthew nodded.

"Good," was his short response, but Alice grinned widely and amused to his understanding.

"Wait," Adeline said putting her, still glowing, hands out, "you speak Russian? Anyways, not the point. Alice, where the hell did you come from?"

"Wouldn't you like to know," she answered teasingly.

"Yeah I would, considering you are definitely in the running for suspicion over this whole sabotage!" She snapped. Matthew quirked and eyebrow, eyeing Alice.

"I don't think-" He was cut off.

"You really think I caused this?" Alice asked, rolling her eyes. She lifted a part of her shirt to show that her lower ribs and side was all bruised. "Got banged up worse than you and if I were to sabotage you I would have just sent in people to gun you down, not trying to crush you."

"Fair point," Matthew added with a shrug. Adeline sighed and put her hands out.

"Fine, fine."

"Anyways, if you're done with all that you need to follow me back," Alice said already walking back the way she came. Adeline and Matthew looked at each other quizzically but followed. Adeline made sure to cast light out in front of Alice so that Alice could see and that she and Matthew could more easily follow. Although, Adeline wouldn't particularly mind it if Alice fell flat on her face. Another time maybe. Alice led them to a stack of toppled over racks and under it was a person unconscious.

"Agent Samantha?" Adeline gasped when she saw that the woman Canary had talked about and had been present during all of their previous psychical testing a few days ago.

"It was too heavy to move on my own," explained Alice, "the racks are stuck on each other somehow."

"Leave it to me," Adeline said as she held her hands out and the various tipped over weapon racks bore a white stream of light around them and floated up. Alice pulled Agent Samantha out from under them and then Adeline let the racks crash back down, one falling so fast that it scratched Alice on the forearm. She glared at Adeline. "Hey, at least we got her," added Adeline.

"Да," muttered Alice, "no thanks to him." Adeline looked back to where Alice had gestured to see Matthew kneeling down away from them. Adeline walked over to see what Matthew was so closely examining. When Adeline reached him her eyes went wide.

"What the hell is that?" She sounded breathlessly. Matthew touched a part of the metal of it and burnt his fingers.

"It's an android," said Samantha, coming to rather quickly. Unusually quickly.

"A what now?" Adeline asked, looking at the strange, broken metallic body.

"S.H.I.E.L.D sentinel robots basically," Samantha explained, "powered off for years now. Adam messaged me saying that they turned themselves on somehow. That their programming was seriously messed up."

"That can't be good," muttered Matthew, still kneeling over the strange sentinel android.

"No, it definitely isn't," said Samantha getting to her feet and brushing off her black tank top, "priority one is to get the hell out of here and inform the S.H.I.E.L.D science division. They'll know how to shut these bitches down."

"Well that's great and all," Matthew muttered sarcastically whilst getting up and moving away from the wrecked android, "but in case you haven't noticed we are all completely stuck down here with a bunch of freaking androids trying to kill us with no way out and with no idea where anyone else is. So your plan better come with a much better thought out prequel." Samantha quirked an eyebrow and crossed her arms.

"Excuse me?" She says almost threatening him to just try and say something like that again.

"Let's just find the others," Adeline cuts in, afraid that Matthew will say something idiotic, which he'd recently been known to do, to piss the agent off.

"Right," said Samantha, walking passed Matthew and the others, "I last remember hearing people down this way. That was before the android tried to take me out. Either way they shouldn't be that far gone."

"Okay," said Adeline, conjuring up a bigger light now, "we'll follow you then." And with that the group set off again following Samantha through the various areas of the seriously strange training facility. They kept on following her lead until they heard very faint footsteps out in front of them.

"JP? Canary? Rori? James?" Samantha called out loudly and repeatedly until the footsteps stopped and then rushed in the opposite way towards them.

"Agent Samantha!" Canary called, relieved as soon as the party came into view. When Samantha counted all four of the other children she was also relieved.

"JP!" Adeline called out all her anxiousness washing away once she say that her little brother was okay.

"Okay, who else is completely done with today?" Matthew asks and several of them mumble agreements or shrug nonchalantly.

"We're not finished yet," Samantha says, looking around the part of the training facility that they're in, like she's trying to deter what part of it they are actually in.

"We're," Matthew resounded distastefully, "where have you been this whole time?!" Samantha shot him a hard look that made him stay silently stunned for a moment.

"Trying to locate the damn androids. And how about a little more respect, huh?" She snaps and Matthew's jaw sets in mild anger. Samantha sighs as she see's that the rest of the kids have also gone silent. She finally gets set on a direction and starts to walk by, motioning for the kids to follow. As she moves by she pats Matthew on the shoulder. "Let's not try and get too worked up, yeah?" She whispers lowly, recalling what Adam had said to her on the phone about the kids abilities getting away from him and causing him to, in Adam's own words, short out. During that long phone call Adam did not hesitate to share his nervousness from his fight with the kid whereas he'd lost all that blood just from getting worked about and then pushing his powers too hard without even knowing it. Of course Samantha knew then that this Matthew kid was a hybrid. Adam was just a little bit too obvious and Samantha was by no stretch of the imagination an idiot.

"If we can get to the control center in this building maybe we can contact Agent Hill," suggested Rori. Samantha grinned as that was exactly the thoughts she wanted them to have.

"I remember the diagram of this from the manuals," Adeline added, "it's in the sub-levels."

"JP and I were down there before," James chimed in helpfully, "I think we could get us all down there."

"You do know there are bound to be lots of androids down there," Alice voiced aloud to the group.

"I'm counting on it," says Canary with a wink to Alice, although it doesn't hide all of her nervousness. They follow James and JP back to where the beam crashed down. It was in fact bent like they said it was. Rori worried how strong these androids might be if the could do damage like that with no problem. Rori wasn't the only one with strange curiosity. As they all carefully made their way down the hole, with somehow no one getting hurt on the way with all the shoving of one another, Matthew was curious as to how Samantha wasn't at all hurt. She said that she'd been fighting an android before Alice had found her trapped, but the more Matthew thought about it the more he realized that the android was limp, not damaged. There were no dents or scratches on the metal. In fact there was no sort of any indication that it had even been turned on at all. Something was going on with Samantha and Matthew was sure that he didn't like it.

"Come on, I think the control room is to the left-"

"No, we need to go right," said Samantha as soon as they were all down the hole. Matthew's suspicion instantly got the better of him and he couldn't hold his tongue.

"You seem pretty sure of yourself considering you were knocked hard in the head earlier," Matthew spits and Samantha gave him another hard line look.

"Is there something you would like to address already?" She snaps right back at him. Matthew wants to just let it go and suggest that they follow Adeline's advice since she hadn't steered them wrong so far; that's what the logical part of his mind was telling him. Of course, the more emotional side was telling him to start yelling and exposing this more than suspicious bitch. And as usual he gave into the worse option.

"Like hell there is!" He shouted loudly, "I found it hysterically ironic how you were left unconscious earlier during some fight of whatever, but do you honestly expect me to believe that there was no damage caused to you or the room except for a few goddamn shelves falling over?! But even those weren't damaged at all!"

"What are you implying?" Samantha asks threateningly, "like this was all staged or something?"

"No. That's exactly what I'm saying! Not implying!" He continued to rage on when no one said anything and just stood there and didn't say anything, maybe even shied away even with all of the evidence placing her with something completely off. It pissed him off to no end. His head hurt a bit, like just pure pressure and stinging pain.

"And the only proof you have to go off that is the decor? Seriously?" Samantha challenged back and Matthew had just about had it with this woman and with the others. He swore he might have completely lost his mind if not for Canary.

"It does seem just a little too convenient for my taste," Canary added, crossing her arms, "in fact, yeah, it seems way too convenient. What's your game, lady?"

"That's absurd," Samantha interjects, placing her hands on her hips, "if I wanted to kill you I wouldn't have brought you all together whereas you had a chance." Canary instantly jumps back, eyeing the woman carefully.

"Who said anything about killing?" She says lowly and slowly starts to put an arrow against her bow string, she needed to defend herself if things came to blows. They were all seriously worried now. James' hand subtly goes for the pistol he hid on the inside of his jacket. His parent's were very over-protective and then knew they wouldn't always be around to do all the guarding so they taught James a few things. More than a few. Samantha rolls her eyes at their skittishness.

"You honestly think that I-" Samantha cut herself off when she heard Matthew gasp. His teeth were grit together and his hands were covering his ears, his fingers curling over them like they hurt. "What's wrong?" Samantha asked instinctively. Matthew seemed to cringe even more at her voice and he moved away from the right hall way like that also caused him pain. Samantha tilted her to the side. Looked curiously at Matthew once more then looked down the right hallway. Some of the other kids did to. They stared for a moment and saw nothing.

Then glowing red lights appeared.

The kids all jumped back. An android walked out of the hallway and stood at the edge, doing nothing. Then it let out a shrill sounding homing beacon for the other androids. That much was obvious since red lights now were above them, starting to crawl and fall down the hole. Matthew screamed from the sound of the beacon. It hurt so incredibly bad.

"Run!" Samantha shouted as she drew two repeaters from her holster, "left hall way, fourth down!"

"I thought you said right!" yelled Rori over all of the androids whirring. Her arm was grabbed by Adeline who yanked her down the hallway where the other kids were running. Canary quickly coaxed Matthew into coming although he was still in pain from the high-pitched noise. Strange though how the other kids could only hear the sirens of the beacon and not the high pitched squeal that emitted from gyros built into their robotic makeup.

"Fourth hall!" James yelled and they all ran down it. They could hear androids piling in behind them. Rori found it strange and worrying that they had only heard a few gunshots behind them then nothing.

"Come on!" Alice yells as the room comes into view. They all get inside and Adeline gasps.

"No! No, no, no, no! All these computers have to be ages old! There's no way any of them work anymore!"

"Oh my god, we're gonna die..." Rori says lowly and too stunned to actually try and comprehend that thought.

"No!" JP shouts, "we're not! Look!" He points to an old elevator shaft that looks mostly intact. "Adeline you can start us up and I can power it!"

"Good idea!" Adeline agrees and they all move back behind the computers and into the elevator shaft. Several androids run into the room. Canary still has the arrow strung on her bow. She pulls the string back and lets the arrow fly. It hits only the androids arm and does little damage to it, but that android does jolt back and hit the one behind it. James holds out his right arm, his hand clutched around the handle of the gun. He starts firing immediately. Alice also pulls out a gun from god knows where.

"Seriously?!" Canary yells, "why was I the only one who didn't get a gun?!" As soon as Canary gets to the word gun the elevator shoots up and dumps them all in some quiet, dark room seemingly at the very top of the structure.

"Two hours and forty-four minutes. Not bad," says a recognizable female voice.

"Agent Hill?!" Alice asks in shock as she see's that she, Adam and Samantha are all sitting around of the metal tables.

"What the hell is going on?" Matthew asks and he touches at the dried blood in his ears

"Your evaluation," Maria Hill answered strait. The kids looked around at each other then back at the head agent.

"What?" Asked Adeline in pure awe, "that-.. that was just a-..."

"A very extreme, violent version of what your evaluation was suppose to be," Samantha answered the party as she gave a subtle glare to both Maria and Adam.

"I.. don't understand," JP says, "those androids were trying to kill us," he claimed with major emphasis. Maria shook he head.

"No. You were never in any real danger. The androids were being driven here by, basically, remote control."

"Not in any real danger? How about the giant beam that almost crushed us?!" Matthew snapped harshly at the agents.

"Oh yeah, that was my idea," announced Adam and he earned a murderous, green eyed, glare from the annoyed teenager.

"Look, it was simply an evaluation to see if you'd guys would be able to handle the pressure of a tense situation that you weren't prepared for," Maria explains as if it were as casual a subject as talking about the weather, "That happens a lot in this business."

* * *

"-handle the pressure of a tense situation," Samantha said in mock tone whilst sitting next to Adam on a high bar stool at Adam's new current favorite bar, "that happens a lot in this business," she snaps to herself as she takes a swig of her drink. "Sometimes I can't believe that woman. I mean you should have seen the looks on some of those kids faces, Foster, it was horrible. They were terrified."

"It was an intense exercise," Adam agreed whilst downing a shot of what he had ordered.

"Exactly!" Samantha exclaimed, "they were so horrified. That is not at all what we had talked about before," she raged on, slamming her glass down hard on the dark wood bar top. It was promptly refilled. Samantha snatched it up.

"Our version could have done with some improvement," Adam said, toying with his own empty shot glass. Samantha's own glass froze part way to her thick, red lips.

"You let Maria help with those brutalized plans, didn't you?" Samantha asked quietly after a moment. Samantha's tone was stuck in disbelief, but it also wasn't voiced quite like a question. She wanted to convince herself that that wasn't the case but couldn't.

"No," Adam answered, setting his small shot glass down on the bar once more, "I just didn't stop her from enacting them." Samantha scoffed and turned away from Adam for a moment.

"I can't believe you," she says finally, "I thought you said you were against all of this. So what, you call me two nights ago going on and on about how damn worried you are and then you just sit back when actual danger and damage threatens them? You tell me to come in, fine whatever I owed you, but then you go and try to bench me when things finally get going?"

"You weren't even suppose to be in that exercise. You just got made them even more paranoid," Adam answers casually and calmly. Samantha slams her shot glass down on the bar, shattering it.

"You tell me one thing and then tell me where to get off when we try to enact it. What the hell are you playing at? My whole coming here was a lie for some damn scheme. You know you're spinning just as much bullshit as S.H.I.E.L.D these days."

"I won't fully deny that," Adam says leaning one arm down on the bar top. Samantha scowled again and he hands tightened into fists.

"You of all people should know what happens when you push meta-human children like that. You know damn well what variations of S.H.I.E.L.D has done to both of us."

"I do know," Adam says, thankful that his glass had been refilled, "I'm living proof of their vile actions, but it doesn't change things for now."

"If that's how you plan to run things," Samantha said sternly, holding herself high, "If that's how you plan to treat children then I don't want any part of this. You hear me? Any." Adam only nods and looked down at the bar top. Samantha scowls angrily, get up off her stool, throws some cash down and walks towards the door. She throws in open in rage, but first looks back before walking out. "You used to be better than this, Foster," she snaps but it's also sad.

"No," Adam says, reaching for the gold, glowing crystal sphere inside of his his jacket, "I wasn't."

 **A/N: Agent Samantha was a character written by JessicaMarshall563. She's writing a fantastic story revolving around the strange, unique daughter of Tony Stark. Though Samantha's not fully mentioned here as she is in "Don't You Worry Child" as the only daughter of Tony Stark, there's also nothing that says that she isn't related *wink* *wink*.**

 **Thank you so much Jessica for having Samantha make an appearance, it was fun to work with you. :)**

 **user/JessicaMarshall563**

 **s/10495267/1/Don-t-You-Worry-Child**


	14. Episode 7 (A Little Bit of Chaos Pt 1)

**Previously on "Dangerous Games"...**

 _"I have to ask though, what did you put in Matthew Ross' suit?" Maria lead Adam over to another metal table with various pieces of tech on it. She picks up and hands a tiny circular chip to Adam._

 _"These are tiny radioactive inhibitors sewn into the fabric that should help to stabilize his abilities," Maria answers. Adam's brows knit and he looks back up and Maria._

 _"How did you know that his abilities were unstable?" Adam questions. Maria shrugged it off and marks something else off on the list she had open on her S.H.I.E.L.D pad as one of the scientist's showed something to her._

 _"You must have filed it in your report-"_

 _"No, no, no," Adam said, cutting her off, "these suits were already inside the cases. You knew who they were going to, you sent them out."_

 _"What is it this time?" Maria questions, crossing her arms and quirking an eyebrow._

 _"The kids evaluation is this week."_

 _"And..?"_

 _"I want to call in someone else," Adam says and Maria sighs and puts her fingers to her temples._

 _"You think you can get Agent S. here to NYC with in 4 hours?" Maria asks, incredulous._

 _"Only if I ask nicely," Adam says with a small knowing smirk._

 _"Hey, I'm Agent Samantha S. but you're going to just call me Agent S. or Agent Samantha."_

 _"You're running the evaluation?" Canary asked simply for trying to start a conversation and break the semi-awkward silence._

 _"Yeah," Samantha said and Canary couldn't really tell if she was pleased about it or not, "I owe Foster a few favors. Mainly from the Red Room..." Canary did not fail to notice her trailing off._

 _"You mean...like the Soviet KBG?" Samantha flashed Canary an almost hard look, silently questioning her on where she could have possibly heard this, but after a few tense moments, she lets it go._

 _"Yeah, something like that," Samantha responds dryly_

 _"You tell me one thing and then tell me where to get off when we try to enact it. What the hell are you playing at? My whole coming here was a lie for some damn scheme. You know you're spinning just as much bullshit as S.H.I.E.L.D these days."_

 _"I won't fully deny that," Adam says leaning one arm down on the bar top. Samantha scowled again and he hands tightened into fists._

 _"You of all people should know what happens when you push meta-human children like that. You know damn well what variations of S.H.I.E.L.D has done to both of us."_

 _"I do know," Adam says, thankful that his glass had been refilled, "I'm living proof of their vile actions, but it doesn't change things for now."_

 _"If that's how you plan to run things," Samantha said sternly, holding herself high, "If that's how you plan to treat children then I don't want any part of this. You hear me? Any." Adam only nods and looked down at the bar top. Samantha scowls angrily, get up off her stool, throws some cash down and walks towards the door. She throws in open in rage, but first looks back before walking out. "You used to be better than this, Foster," she snaps but it's also sad._

 _"No," Adam says, reaching for the gold, glowing crystal sphere inside of his his jacket, "I wasn't."_

* * *

"Bo-ring," feigned the blonde haired beauty from her reclined position on the plush, red, expensive leather couch. She toyed with the string of pearls around her neck and threw hear head back against the pillows. "Doesn't anyone have any sort of interesting news these days?"

"I'm sorry Ms Allure," said the man shamefully. And quite literally in downright shame that he couldn't please her. Allure groaned and got up off the couch. She moved her silver shawl closer around her body and crossed her arms. Her designer heels clinked against the hard marble floor as she made her way to the full sized window which stretched across the far wall. Allure peered out onto the bustling night life of NYC.

"Things used to be a party, darling, though I doubt someone as young as you would remember," sighed Allure. She pressed her thin digits against the thin, crystal infused, glass. Her fingers danced over the reflection of her thin, young face. She was nearly 60 now and didn't look a day over 25. Of course that was due to trade secrets of prolonged youth. Such secrets of course had required murder to obtain, but of course all men in her employment were just oh so devoted to her cause. Her cause being whatever Ms Allure so desired at the time. "Used to be full of dashing superheros and dangerous evils. So many secrets and deals to be made and had. Oh, those were the days I so miss."

"Then I suppose I have something you outta like," said another man with a gruff, low voice. He made his way into the room, barged in, and made his way towards Allure, knocking the other man as he did. Allure sighed once more and turned out.

"Creel, darling, how nice of you to barge in," she says as she goes and plops back down on the couch, "what is it now? Bank robbery? Another tech heist? More mindless pieces of gossip on Agent Lorenzo? Well you might as well get on with it, I don't like a tease, Mr Creel." The man smirked and sat down on the end of Allure's couch.

"I'd never tease you, Ms Allure," said the man wholeheartedly. "I received word that the underground S.H.I.E.L.D is rebuilding The Team," He said. Allure instantly perked up and grinned.

"Oh, how very interesting, Darling," she praises, "and how very unfortunate that I haven't yet introduced myself to them as of yet."

_Dangerous Games_

"I swear to god this is impossible!" Matthew said angrily for probably the tenth time that morning alone. Adam let out an airy laugh.

"You can't expect to get a full grip over your powers in a day," he says amused, "it takes lots and lots of practice. Probably even years if we're being honest here." Matthew scowls and leans against one of the walls in the training room.

"I can't go anywhere, I can't do anything and at this rate I'll be stuck here Forever!" Adam laughed again and shook his head.

"No you won't," he said surely, "you just haven't found that trigger yet."

"Which is proving to be impossible," Matthew states sourly. Adam sighed and took off his finger less training gloves, not that he was really training that much anyways.

"Can't find a proper on switch if you don't know where the off switch is and vise versa," Adam amends to his previous statement. Matthew sighs and nods. It was true after all. "Come on. One more try," Adam coaxes. Matthew groans but walked over despite his frustration right now. "Okay. Can you remember exactly what you were feeling the first time that we fought?" Matthew raised an eyebrow.

"You're seriously starting this off with psycho-analyzing me ?" Adam rolled his eyes.

"Would you just do it already? What do you seriously have to lose but all the time you spend procrastinating right now?" Matthew groaned again.

"Fine," he decided. He started racking his memory for that day, although he really didn't have to dig too deep. It was a pretty prominent memory. "I was completely freaked out. Panicked, pissed off maybe."

"So your heart rate was rising and you were getting really stressed out and worked up," Adam sounded out loud, simplifying it in terms. "Now just try and get back to that state," Adam said lowering the volume of his voice, "just focus on that feeling only." Adam watched as Matthew closed his eyes for a second as when he blinked them open they were bright green. Adam grinned, but it quickly faded as Matthew's eyes flit back to blue, he grabbed his head and nearly fell over. Adam quickly moved to steady him. Matthew growled and shrugged his hands off.

"See? It's hopeless! It turns itself on at the worst times and I can't have my abilities when I actually want to use them!"

"Just calm down," Adam says gently, still suppressing a frown. It was a problem that Matthew had a whole weird anti-complex with his abilities. He was so close Adam just knew it. "Your abilities, until recently, have been heavily suppressed by weird, various medications. You honestly cannot expect everything to go smoothly right off the bat."

"I thought part of all of this hybrid crap would make it easier to use my abilities," Matthew practically sneered at the last word. Adam shook his head.

"Actually that makes it all the more difficult. It's two completely different sets of powers that have to fit together and that rarely ever works." Matthew glares at Adam. Sometimes his brutal honesty wasn't always wanted.

"And yet you still wonder why I don't want to tell the others about it," Matthew snaps. It's true that when Adam first taught the kids about hybrids he may have conveyed the wrong message when he associated them only with murder, destruction and death and a danger to other meta-humans as well. Adam didn't argue the point with Matthew when he said that he wasn't going to let any of the others know. Matthew didn't want to be utterly hated on day one.

"You're just more... unique than they are."

"Well is me being unique gonna end up hurting somebody?" _Probably_ Adam wants to answer, but he doesn't. That most likely wouldn't be the best thing to say right now.

"You're gonna be fine."

"Yeah, whatever," Matthew snaps lowly as he starts to walk back out of the training room. Just then the intercom turned on on the overhead speakers.

 _"All Project Next Avengers members please report to the briefing room upstairs,"_ it said. Matthew scowled and shook his head.

"I just love how they refer to us as a project label," Matthew remarks sarcastically and unhappily. He crosses his arms and walks upstairs to the main floor of the S.H.I.E.L.D octagon house. Adam sighed sadly and followed him up. Jackson was already there with several S.H.I.E.L.D glass tablets in his hands. He fumbled with one and dropped it on the floor. He quickly bent down to pick it back up. JP, who was already sitting at the large table, snickered which only earned him an elbow in the side by Canary, who had recently taking a liking to the clumsy intern. He passed out various tablets and looks curiously around the table when he found he had extra.

"Where is Miss Stark and Miss Maximoff?" He asked curiously, seemingly the only thing he was concerned about to do with the other glass pads in his hands. He looked about helplessly for a moment before deciding to set them down on the end of the table.

"Probably at the mall or something," JP answers, putting his head in his hands and rolling his eyes.

"Well, we'll just catch them up later," Adam says simply and gestures for Jackson to continue as he normally would. Jackson taps a file on the main glass ipad and it transfers to all the others.

"Recently S.H.I.E.L.D operatives picked up activities of a notorious Ms Allure in downtown New York. She's recently been making power grabs-"

"Pfft, what?" Alice says laughing a little, "she's who you're nervous about? I bet a woman like this wouldn't get her hands dirty in fear of breaking a nail," Alice continues wryly as she points to the picture of the woman in question. Alice tosses her glass pad down, however, most of the boys hadn't stopped looking. In fact, half of them hadn't even blinked.

"She doesn't have to get her hands dirty. She doesn't have to do anything but look you in the eye," Adam says lowly and that seems to get some attention. "She has the ability to manipulate the mentality of men. Make them do whatever she wants, as I'm sure that's exactly what Jackson here was about to get to next." Jackson nods quickly, switching to the next file.

"So... basically her power is sex appeal?" Alice jokes again, not understanding whats got people so riled up. So what if she could control men? There were tons of women agents here capable of sending her ass back down to street level.

"This is no laughing matter," Jackson snaps. Well, snaps as much as Jackson actually could. He was a very passive, shy, mild-tempered person. The group doubted he could even hurt a fly. "S.H.I.E.L.D is very shaken about this."

"Uh, huh," Alice says, leaning back and putting her feet up on the table, "so what? S.H.I.E.L.D wants us to go knock her a few pegs down?" It would be easy enough.

"No. S.H.I.E.L.D wants you to stay inside and out of trouble," Jackson concludes. All of the kids present just stare at the intern. Just plain stare at him.

"So... what was the point of you even coming here in the first place?" James huffs, exasperated, and even he was considered to be the patient one out of the gang. Besides Adam.

"Doesn't even matter anyways," Alice says getting her feet down off the glass table top and pushes herself up from her chair, shoving it back a bit in the process, then leaves the room. James and Canary follow in suit. JP and Matthew stay and feel the growing awkwardness. Adam sighs tiredly.

"Thank you, Jackson." Jackson nods and promptly leaves the house as swiftly as he can. Silence ensues.

"...Well that was fun," Matthew mutters sarcastically.

* * *

"No," Rori says for about the millionth time as she puts an item back on the rack she found it on, "ugh, there are just no good choices here," she whines. Adeline quirks an eyebrow.

"Um, are you kidding me?" She asks in awe, looking around at the three-story department store.

"They just don't have what I like," Rori says with a shrug. Adeline's mouth nearly falls open. Nearly. "You however," she continues and grabs Adeline's arms, "work with pretty much everything." Adeline spent the next three hours being dragged around my Rori and trying on loads of pretty much every garment imaginable. Eventually, they found only a few outfits both Rori and Adeline could agree on. Rori, of course, insisted on paying and being a _Stark_ Adeline didn't argue.

"Should we do lunch?" Rori asks as she and Adeline walk out the side exit of the department store. Adeline looks down at her watch.

"Um, it's 2:45."

"So?" Rori questions. That is before both girls were knocked down by some huge brute built man wearing an expensive suit. Rori sighs dramatically. "Rude," she feigns. Adeline just rolls her eyes and gathers up the bags again and while she's putting a blouse back into one of the bags she see's the brute press the metal button on the placebo and catches his hand take on the qualities of rusty iron.

"Rori," Adeline whispers to her new friend as she subtly looks over.

"Oh my god..." Rori breathes quietly. She and Adeline slowly stand up. They both turn around and nearly collide into the chest of another brutish man.

"Ladies," he says and his voice is very low and deep, "let's take a walk, shall we?" And then the both see that he's holding a gun, pointed right at them. Adeline panics, her powers flaring, but Rori grabs her forearm to stop her. They were in public after all and Adeline was not so subtle.

"Just do what he says," Rori whispers to Adeline quietly. Rori herself had been told what do to if ever she ended up in a situation like this. Of course, being the daughter of the wealthiest, most-well known and possibly one of the most hated men in the world, she would no doubt end up in a shady situation.

The man who had recently been standing at the end of the sidewalk, the one with the strange iron hand, grinned and walked in front of the girls to guide them while the man with the gun stood behind them with the pistol still aimed squarely at their backs. The strange men lead them down into a subway station, which nobody was at at 3:00. Literally no one. "Hows about we take a little ride?" The subway car stopped and the doors slid open. "Ladies first." Adeline looked nervously at Rori. Rori nodded and they both were shaking as they stepped on. The both sat down next to each other and the man with the gun stayed by the door as it closed. "Two minutes," the one with the iron hand said as the subway car sped off.

Rori was sweating and shaky at the same time. She could feel the fire underneath her skin heating up then cooling rapidly, messing drastically with her body temperature. They needed to get out of this somehow. They were training to be superheroes goddammit! Rori looked at Adeline and whispered very, very quietly to her. "Stop the train," she uttered. Adeline looked at her as if she were insane. Rori nodded to reassure her. Adeline cocked her head to the side for a moment. She wasn't even sure if she could do that, but it was definitely worth a shot in this instance. There were to strange, armed men in this car and as far as Adeline could tell one was meta-human, which made this all the more dangerous. They had no idea where they were being taken; to who or why. Adeline took a deep breath in. She put her hands behind her back so that the silver glowing would be hidden. Adeline stared down at her lap, trying to pull together as much energy as she could muster. Adam had told Adeline that her powers would grow if only she concentrated, but oddly enough the key wasn't to stay calm. It was to let all your emotional ties build up and fuel you. Any kind of pain of fear or anger or panic or joy would allow the more of her abilities to come out.

Everyone on the train was thrown forward suddenly as the subway car lurched once then screeched against the metal track before coming to a complete stop inside the tunnel. Both of the brutish men looked at each other curiously. Rori could see a dim light on the subway car in the very front. That one must have made it to the station while the other ones stayed stuck underground. They could escape through there if they could only get the men's attention brought off them.

Adeline was sweating profusely, her powers still holding the train back while it was all too functional still. The moment Adeline relented would be the moment that this train sped forward without stopping to the next station and possibly beyond. "Burn it," Adeline said through clenched teeth. Rori's brows furrowed it complete utter confusion until she saw a newspaper and brown paper bag off to the side on one of the plastic seats. Rori's eyes lit up. Literally, they lit up bright red with internal sparks. Adeline gasped and leaned forward a little, sweat was glistening all over her skin. She almost sounded like she was crying. The odd man with the gun stared at Adeline.

"You alright?" Asked with man with the iron changed hand, though he didn't actually sound concerned, just curious. Rori took her hand out of her pink hoodie pocket and focused her internal heat. Rori stretched her hand out and touched it and instantly the paper and bag started smoking. Rori let out a shrill scream, as if she were afraid, to get the men's attention. It had worked considering both men moved to look over when smoke arose. The sprinklers inside the subway car went off, soaking all of them.

"Open the door!" Rori yelled quickly as she jumped up and pulled Adeline up with her. Adeline had the doors in front of them to other train cars push open and her and Rori ran through them.

"Hey!" The armed man yelled behind them, but neither Rori nor Adeline stopped. The man charged after them, but oddly enough he made no move to use his weapon. Instead, he just ran. His black rimmed hat fell off and as Adeline looked back she could see the mans face. His skin was tinted grey and had peculiar markings on it. His eyes were blood red and had no pupils.

Rori and Adeline had made it to the door. Rori jumped out and held her hand out to help Adeline, who was feeling weakened and still draining by the second and the subway car lurched forward once more making Adeline nearly lose her balance. Adeline grasped Rori's hand, but Adeline's ankle was grabbed by the strange man, who had fallen when the car lurched previously. Adeline screamed in fear, Rori tugged Adeline's arm hard and she fell tumbling out and the car sped forward with both men still inside. From down on the concrete Adeline looked at her hands curiously. They were still glowing and she hadn't let go of the train car yet, but now it sped barreling forward at faster speeds than usual. Strange.

The next thing that happened was the song Naturally, by Selena Gomez, started playing on Rori's phone. With a very shaky hand Rori fished it out of her pocket and hit the answer button.

"H-Hello?"

"Where were you? I've been trying to get a hold of you and Adeline. We really need to have a chat," Adam says on the other end of the line.

"About?" Rori asks in a shaky tone.

"Elided superhuman mobsters and their leader. No joke; and he's very dangerous. S.H.I.E.L.D's out looking for them now and it won't be good if you get in the way." Rori and Adeline both swallowed hard.

"...Found 'em."


	15. Episode 7 (A Little Bit of Chaos Pt 2)

"Just an internal bruise," Serena announces as she looks over Adeline's ankle, "should heal rather quickly. No reason to be worried about it. Just ice it 20 minutes on 20 minutes off for the swelling, okay honey?" Adeline nods, still shaken.

"Yes, thanks Miss Grey," she utters quietly before sliding off the table and Serena leads her out of the room. When Serena see's Maria Hill she pauses. Serena gently puts her hand on Adeline's shoulder and smiles.

"Why don't you go wait with Miss Stark and I'll walk you both home in a minute." Adeline silently moves over to wait next to Rori, who was also looked over. Serena stands straighter and makes her way over to the supervising agent of this project. "Miss Hill," Serena greets dully.

"Miss Grey," Maria greets with the same level of enthusiasm, "is there anything you could tell for sure?" Serena pursed her lips and quirked an eyebrow.

"I didn't go shuffling through their memories if that's what you're inquiring about," Serena answers with held back venom. The people of S.H.I.E.L.D knew that she didn't do that. That she resisted from doing it at all costs. "But I can give you what I know from a psychological standpoint." Maria nods and gestures for Serena to go ahead. "According to both girls the man was armed, but when they tried to escape he made no move to attack them yet before he threatened them."

"Sounds like he wanted them for something and had orders to bring them alive," Maria comments. Serena hums and her lips pull into a crooked frown.

"That's exactly what I thought too until they claimed that only one man chased them and the other merely stood by," Serena concludes and this draws a fairly confused look from the female agent.

"Sounds like it was meant to seem like they got away," Maria says cocking her head to the side in contemplation, "but those men let the girls go. Why?"

"I wish I knew, Miss Hill," Serena answered with a sigh, "but even if I wanted to my telepathic reach doesn't go past a mile at it's very best." Maria nods and hands a small file to be updated to Serena.

"I expect to see a report on my desk first thing tomorrow."

"Yes Ma'am, but I'm not working overtime," says Serena as she takes the manilla folder and walks away. She sets it down on a shelf and stands in front of the two girls. "Okay, come on," she says gently, leading them back to the octagon shaped in the far east of the compound.

Needless to say Adam was Not at all pleased that the girls had been attacked only minutes after S.H.I.E.L.D decided to even inform them of the issue. If they had suspected something might be going on then why not let at least him know sooner? Adam was angry and just wanted someone to blame really. S.H.I.E.L.D wasn't at fault. If the agent's debriefed all of them on every single problem they'd surely all get paranoid. No, Adam just needed somewhere to channel it all and S.H.I.E.L.D was generally a good spot. Adam had quickly explained afterwards to all of them that they weren't allowed to leave the compound for a while. There was a lot of complaining, but after the near hurricane Adam created to knock them all down he definitely had their attention.

Adam had to admit that he really had fallen lower than he thought. At first he thought this would be nothing more than a glorified babysitting gig. Show up Monday through Friday, make sure that the kids didn't wreck anything with their powers and file in his damn reports at the end of every week. Well it had been five weeks now, three since they'd all been here, and this was the first time that Adam felt that he had more of a responsibility to those kids more than just keeping an eye on how S.H.I.E.L.D was toying with them. He'd rather be their friend more than their supervisor, but his no rules, no cares way of running things almost got two girls killed today. Maybe Samantha had been right. He felt like he failed in a way. Years ago he would have been able to use his supernatural, Asgardian based senses and would have known the instant that they were in danger, but he'd let his powers go unused for so long that they were all but useless. Something had to give and it just had.

Adam couldn't sleep that night. He got up and went downstairs to the training room. He knew it would take a while and he knew that he probably barely had the patience for it, but it was time to get back in the game.

There was another member of the house that couldn't sleep that night. Two others actually.

* * *

Adeline was in her room, huddled up on her bed. Her knees leaned up against her chest and her arms tightly bound around them. It seemed like every time she'd even breath that something would move in her room. Silver lights danced around everything. Usually it would seem so elegant as that, but tonight it looked like a swarm of angry bee's shooting around everything violently and hammering at her glass windows , threatening to shatter them open and let the cold winds from the outside in. Something was very wrong. Adeline sprung out of bed and grabbed her coat. She slipped it on and as she pulled her left sleeve on silver lights shot at a stack of books on her dresser, knocking them all off instantly. Adeline quickly moved forward, twisted the knob on her door and walked out.

Matthew had another nightmare that night. It was strange. Nothing he had ever seen before it didn't really even seem like him in the dream, but yet he was looking through that persons eyes as destruction was formed all around him by some unknown creatures. They looked deformed or alien. He couldn't place it if he'd seen it before. Anyways, after the nightmare Matthew decided a change of scenery might be good and so he made his way into the living area. It was dark, but he could see alright and he could hear. Could hear footsteps to be exact and the front door opening. Matthew looked over to see Adeline going out... at 2:00 in the morning? That couldn't be right. After fighting with himself for a moment, Matthew grabbed his own coat from the closet and decided to go after her and ask her what in the world she was doing. Matthew went out the door and felt the cold wind blow against his face and skin. It was fairly bitter and chilling. Matthew ran to catch up to Adeline as she was already outside of the compound. "Hey!" He called after her. Adeline didn't turn around or even pause. She kept walking. Didn't she hear me? Matthew wondered. Matthew moved forward at a faster pace to get close to her and as soon as he's about to say something again, as he's right behind her now, the iron of a lamp post creaks and a silver light and it falls while Matthew is directly under it. His body reacts before his mind can even comprehend. He's out of the way faster than he thought possible, but right now his mind is stay playing catch up. Had Adeline just tried to?... "What the hell?!" He yelled out loud and this time Adeline stopped and turned round. She was crying. Matthew got up from where he'd spontaneously launched himself launched him out onto the concrete road down onto his knees. Before Matthew could day anything a big black van pulled up so fast that it nearly ran him over, once again Matthew's spontaneous reflexes saved him again. The car window was rolled down.

"Hello again," said a man who, as soon as he touched the car door handle, his skin turned to metal.

* * *

The door to the compound was furiously pounded upon. Hard enough for Adam to hear it. He walked up the stairs from the training room and opened the door, he certainly didn't expect Serena to be in it's wake.

"Miss Grey?" He asked curiously. Serena walked inside the house and quickly threw a file down. Adam looked very confused since this was so unlike Serena. "Please come in," Adam muttered wryly.

"I took another look into the EMH sensory scans. I think you might want to as well," Serena said, moving the file to Adam's hands simply by blinking. Adam opened it up peered at the various papers. He quirked an eyebrow and Serena elaborated on what he was seeing. "The particular levels and pattern on the graph of the first page is Adeline's normal energy signature, completely normal, charted three weeks ago, the second page was taken today the only difference being that her levels and pattern are way bent out of shape meaning her signature has been tampered with." Adam's eyes went wide.

"Is that even possible?" He asks. Serena nods.

"Energy manipulation abilities. Pretty common, but the person who did this knew exactly what they were doing. The energy spike like this could have been caused by an electrical serge, a cross mutation of their powers or even something as simple as-"

"Psychical contact," Adam finished, remembering the bruise on Adeline's ankle from when the man had grabbed her. He set down the file and he and Serena both moved down the hall towards Adeline's room. Adam opened the door and saw everything in her room in disarray and all of her belongings, albeit small, were scattered everywhere and some even broken. Even worse Adeline was no where to be found. "Damn it."

* * *

"Oh my, my, my, how adorable they both are," muses Ms. Allure as Matthew and Adeline are dragged up to her penthouse in the city. "You're both just so cute, I can only imagine what S.H.I.E.L.D has done with you two."

"Who the hell are you?" Matthew snaps and he's hit in the back of the head from the man whose holding him there. Matthew's just thankful that it wasn't the metal hand he got hit with.

"Creel!" Ms. Allure snaps, "let's not harm out guests."

"Well you have a real strange way of offering an invitation," Matthew says, knowing that he might get hit, but somebody had to say something and Adeline wasn't talking. At all. Ms. Allure grins and leans over on her couch.

"Ooh, feisty aren't we. My name is Ms. Allure darling," Ms. Allure says. She taps on the end of the sofa. "Come here," she says looking Matthew strait in the eyes. Matthew feels something come at him. Hard. Like a blow to the gut and suddenly he finds his legs move involuntarily. He sits down near to Ms. Allure despite himself. For some reason he couldn't say no. Ms. Allure smiles coyly. "See? It's just so much easier when you're obedient." Matthew felt like he couldn't move. Like he was trapped in his own head and his body was stuck motionless. It freaked him out even though that strange sensation was telling him to relax. "You... remind me of someone I knew. A doctor who was suppose to increase the powers of," she smirked and looked at Matthew more intently, "my eyes. He didn't, but oh well, it was on to bigger and brighter things."

"What do you mean?" Matthew asks and Ms. Allure continues to grin and lean back against her many pillows.

"How old do you think I look?" She asks him. Matthew looks at the woman's face and features intently.

"I dunno," he answers numbly, "25? 30?"

"30!?" Ms. Allure gasped and quickly got up from her spot on the couch. She moved to the other side of the room and peered at her reflection in the mirror. She touches at the subtle wrinkles underneath her eyes and near her lips leading onto her cheeks. "I don't- I don't look a day over 23!" She snaps and Matthew doesn't know why he suddenly feels so apologetic towards her.

"I'm so sorry, Ms. Allure," Matthew practically says through his teeth. Ms. Allure looks back at him and a blissfully amused looks plays over her features. She puts her hand on her hip and talks to him as if Matthew were a young naive child.

"Oh honey, it's just so adorable that you think you can resist," she teases as she comes back over to sit down next to him.

"What did you do to Adeline?" Matthew questions and Ms. Allure sighs annoyed and leans back over the end of the couch.

"Don't pester me with these pointless questions," she groans, "I have enough of a headache as it is." Ms. Allure touches her forehead with her ends of her finger tips and grimaces. Despite herself she looks Matthew in the eye again. "Now stop asking questions while we wait for the rest of your friends to arrive." Matthew received another blow to the gut and he fell still. Matthew tensed up a lot. This was very, very bad. She was after all of the kids at S.H.I.E.L.D, but why? What did she have to gain? Would their fate be the same as whatever she had done to Adeline? Adeline was pretty much a vegetable now. A very destructive vegetable. She didn't say anything or do anything but throw things around with her mind. She was completely mollified, just like Ms. Allure was trying to make Matthew, but he had a strange feeling that this wasn't the same. It was a full on force the shoved against his will, Matthew tried everything he could to push against it.

"What did.. you do to... Adeline?" Matthew manages to ground out again. This time Ms. Allure's expression went very solemn and stern. She looked angry at him and Matthew's first instinct was to apologize and stop talking right then and Matthew had never had to try so incredibly hard to not lose his intent.

"I said stop," she snaps harshly at him and her eyes start glowing light blue and Matthew can feel his will faltering against Ms. Allure's powers. He honestly wanted to give up and just stop. At least then he wouldn't have to deal with the fact that it felt like his skull was splitting in two and he could just say goodbye to all this damned drama and pain- _No!_ Matthew shouted over his own thoughts, _damn it all, he's wasn't about to fold so easily like that._

"Then tell me," Matthew says, forcing the words out roughly. He needed to find something to distract himself on. He needed to get his mind off of Ms. Allure. Ms. Allure rolled her eyes, but then quickly closed them because of the raging migraine she was having due to the kid resisting her so hard and her having to press more of her abilities.

"I didn't do anything to her, darling," Ms. Allure finally says, pressing her fingers to her temples, "a dear employee of mine lets say. Lash," she says and the grey skinned, red eyed man steps forwards. In Matthew's mind this guy looks a little inhuman."He's new to the ranks, but his gifts are proving to be very useful. He can change electrical currents and considering your friend's powers revolve around that, he was able to manipulate he quite easily. Although I have to admit I've never seen it do quite a number on someone as it has her. Ah well." Matthew's hands balled into fists and that's the first parts of of psychical control that he regained and Ms. Allure did not fail to miss it. "Hm, I wonder if it would have any effect on you. Lash, be a dear and push him just a tiny bit, wouldn't you?" Lash moves forward obediently towards Matthew. He out-stretches his hand and Matthew panics. Lash puts his large hand on Matthew's shoulder and then the next thing Matthew knows is that Lash is against the wall on the other side of the room. Ms. Allure stands up and clasps her hands together. "Oh marvelous," she praises.

"Want me to take him, boss?" Creel asks and Ms. Allure holds out her hand.

"Not yet," she says, "I'm still intrigued." Since Lash grabbed him Matthew felt off. Almost like a swarm of angry bee's were crawling under his skin. He shuttered and felt like he might be sick, but still he was in much better shape than Adeline. Speaking of Adeline, once Lash was knocked out things with her started to go awry. Objects in the room started to shake and fly around and move. Matthew quickly go to his feet to when the couch flipped over. It nearly hit Ms. Allure.

"Creel! Stop her!" Ms. Allure demands and Creel doesn't even spare a second before complying to her orders. Creel moved to detain Adeline and Matthew felt another surge of panic run through him and the man named Creel touched an expensive quartz statue and his skin changed to that. God only knew what he would do to her. Matthew jumped forward and, somehow, ended up tackling the stone man and cracking a part of his arm while he was down. "Lash! Wake the hell up!" Ms. Allure screams to the groggy man, not at all prepared to be beaten by two children. Teenagers no less. Lash jumped up, wanting nothing more than to please Allure, and grabbed Matthew again, forcing down his powers. Nobody was more surprised than Lash when the kid squirming still resulted in Lash being hit back hard with the kids enhanced strength still not fading out. Lash growled and was about to get back at the kid when a part of the ceiling crashed down on him. The next thing that happens is Allure still barking more orders at the helpless henchmen. Creel struggles to hold Matthew down, confused at why Lash's power seemingly didn't work.

Matthew felt like his blood was absolutely boiling. Burning like near acid in his veins. The last time he could remember it feeling like this was back in DC nearly a month ago. When he fought with Adam, but that resulted in- and then Matthew's realized his nose was bleeding heavily again with the burning blood that stung his skin.

The entire floor was shaking now and Adeline was just standing there still completely still and dazed. Statues shattered, furniture flipped, floors cracked and lights flickered on and off. The large window wall shattered open, though this was not a result of Adeline's doing. Creel was knocked clear away from Matthew.

"Oh, that half Asgardian come to save the day?" Ms. Allure taunts, "have you been reduced to babysitting now? Shame. Why don't you come join me instead? My offer still stands, darling." Adam scoffs, insulted by her heinous offer.

"As if that were to actually happen," Adam answers as he dodges a falling beam.

"But it will," Ms. Allure implores as she looks Adam in the eyes and her own glow, "you've suffered such wounds to the heart, darling, I can please you." Adam shakes his head, not even phased by her powers. Her charm had no effect on him. Not anymore. Lilly...

Another piece of the ceiling comes crashing down and slams on Allure's leg. "Creel!" She shouts in pain. He quickly moves over to her and Creel draws a gun and aims it directly at Adam. He fires several shots, but the bullets barely make it four feet forward. The bullets shake with silver light and shoot up through the ceiling. Adeline holds her hand out and Ms. Allure and Creel float up off their feet and next they both shoot through the window and fall from the penthouse and Ms. Allure screams as she falls. Adam stares wide eyed back at Adeline. Things are still moving and shaking.

"Adeline," Adam says calmly.

"They're evil," Adeline says, her powers still go haywire even though Adeline looks drained and covered in sweat, "they're hurting people and using children," she says appalled, still in a major daze.

"I know," Adam utters in a completely eased tone, "but they're gone now. They won't bother us again-" another beam crashed down right near to Matthew, nearly landing on him which makes Adam's heart pound for a second until he realizes that Matthew had been narrowly missed. Though his worry is not alleviated much when he see's that Matthew is bleeding again due to his powers and possible the fight. Damn it. "They were using people. You said it," Adam says, slowly moving closer despite the higher level of destruction swirling right around Adeline. "Don't do this. Don't let them use you." Adeline slowly puts her hand down and the destruction minimizes but does not cease completely. Adam moves close to her slowly but surely. "It's okay," he says as he shoves a needle into Adeline's arm and injects a minor stabilizing serum that Serena concocted. A more simplistic version of the doses they regularly used on Matthew during his initial recovery. Adeline gasps before everything just freezes for a second. Not even a sound is made. Then the backlash breaks every piece of glass with in a 20 floor radius in the penthouse tower. Adeline them promptly passes out. Adam steadies her and lowers her down easily. He contacts S.H.I.E.L.D before rushing over to dose Matthew with the stabilizing agent and with in minutes he starts to level out on his own with the help of the drug. Adam breathes out heavily. He really should have prepared himself better for this job.

* * *

"Seems like you've had quite the night then," says Maria as she straitens the various papers for the report, "rest assured Allure will be found. We've tipped of every law enforcement agency in the city."

"Thank you," Adam says, albeit slightly groggy, it had been a long night even after he got back. Matthew and Adeline still had to be sorted out properly and that hadn't been accomplished until the early hours of the morning and Adam still hadn't slept at all. Matthew's natural cellular regeneration started up as soon as he was brought back to the base and he could relax and even sleep. Adeline took a bit longer. Even Serena was baffled at what she found by comparing the energy signature obstructions between Adeline and Matthew. Sure, Matthew was a hybrid and therefore much more resilient, but even by creating a mathematical formula to calculate the difference between their power levels, Adeline was still way out of sorts. If Serena didn't know any better she'd say that Adeline wasn't an energy meta-human at all.

"How are they doing?" Maria asks.

"Better," Adam answers cryptically and tiredly before elaborating to satisfy Maria's curiosity. Adam wasn't sure if it was just a sleep driven perspective, but it seemed like Maria was actually concerned. "Psychically they're recovering fine. Mentally I can't say for certain, but Adeline claims that she can't remember a thing. Matthew says he got bits and pieces, he took a hit to the head again."

"Well," Maria says, showing the file in her desk drawer, "maybe it's best that they don't remember anything."

"Agreed," Adam says, pushing himself up from the chair at the end of Maria's desk inside her upscale, efficient office. "I'm headed back to the house. JP was a wreck last night. You know where to find me if you need me."

"At the bar?" Maria asks with no subtlety. Adam sighed. It was true, he wouldn't deny that he'd been going out almost every night to that place. Clearly Maria wasn't happy about it and Adam couldn't hold it against her. Especially after an incident like this where Adam was so ill prepared.

"Not anymore," He assured her right before her left.


	16. Episode 8 (First Day of School)

**Hey, sorry this** _ **Episode**_ **was cut short due to me just being really busy and not having enough time to finish every single scene I wanted in here.**

 _ **Previously on "Dangerous Games"...**_

 _"Creel, darling, how nice of you to barge in," she says as she goes and plops back down on the couch, "what is it now? Bank robbery? Another tech heist? More mindless pieces of gossip on Agent Lorenzo? Well you might as well get on with it, I don't like a tease, Mr Creel." The man smirked and sat down on the end of Allure's couch._

 _"I'd never tease you, Ms Allure," said the man wholeheartedly. "I received word that the underground S.H.I.E.L.D is rebuilding The Team," He said. Allure instantly perked up and grinned._

 _"Oh, how very interesting, Darling," she praises, "and how very unfortunate that I haven't yet introduced myself to them as of yet."_

 _"Ladies," Lash says and his voice is very low and deep, "let's take a walk, shall we?" And then the both see that he's holding a gun, pointed right at them. Adeline panics, her powers flaring, but Rori grabs her forearm to stop her. They were in public after all and Adeline was not so subtle._

 _"Just do what he says," Rori whispers to Adeline quietly._

 _"H-Hello?"_

 _"Where were you? I've been trying to get a hold of you and Adeline. We really need to have a chat," Adam says on the other end of the line._

 _"About?" Rori asks in a shaky tone._

 _"Elided superhuman mobsters and their leader. No joke; and he's very dangerous. S.H.I.E.L.D's out looking for them now and it won't be good if you get in the way." Rori and Adeline both swallowed hard._

 _"...Found 'em."_

 _"I didn't do anything to her, darling," Ms. Allure finally says, pressing her fingers to her temples, "a dear employee of mine lets say. Lash," she says and the grey skinned, red eyed man steps forwards. In Matthew's mind this guy looks a little inhuman."He's new to the ranks, but his gifts are proving to be very useful. He can change electrical currents and considering your friend's powers revolve around that, he was able to manipulate he quite easily. Although I have to admit I've never seen it do quite a number on someone as it has her. Ah well." Matthew's hands balled into fists and that's the first parts of of psychical control that he regained and Ms. Allure did not fail to miss it. "Hm, I wonder if it would have any effect on you. Lash, be a dear and push him just a tiny bit, wouldn't you?" Lash moves forward obediently towards Matthew. He out-stretches his hand and Matthew panics. Lash puts his large hand on Matthew's shoulder and then the next thing Matthew knows is that Lash is against the wall on the other side of the room. Ms. Allure stands up and clasps her hands together. "Oh marvelous," she praises._

 _"I know," Adam utters in a completely eased tone, "but they're gone now. They won't bother us again. They were using people. You said it," Adam says, slowly moving closer despite the higher level of destruction swirling right around Adeline. "Don't do this. Don't let them use you."_

* * *

Canary was up late that night, emailing some of her friends from her old school. Jill Alges being one of them. Canary was relieved that Jill didn't remember a thing from when Penance captured her. Canary didn't think Jill was the kind of person who could cope with the reality that real weird, explainable things like that existed. Just imagine if Canary were to tell Jill about her roommates.

Things had recently cooled down after that whole business with Ms. Allure last week. From what Canary understands it could have been a lot worse. Adam claims that Allure was hardly trying at best. He claimed to know how cut throat she could really be which made Canary curious on how he could possibly know that, but she didn't pry... openly. Canary could tell that there were more than a few oddities transpiring.

 _"So she just got away?" Canary had asked the night before._

 _"Unfortunately," Adam had answered then, for the first time actually discussing the matter with the rest of them._

 _"What, did she use her mind control powers to get away?" James inquires. No, she was thrown out a window, Adam wants to say but doesn't for Adeline's sake._

 _"Mind control? So that's what all of that was," Matthew says thinking out loud._

 _"It must have not worked very well," Adeline added, "I don't really remember much, but I remember you refusing to listen to her."_

 _"Really?" Adam interjects immediately, eyebrows raised and eyes widened in genuine surprise as he looks over Matthew._

 _"It's not a big deal," Matthew mutters when he noticed others are looking at him, "you did the same thing, Adam." Adam wants to say that is because Allure's abilities don't effect Asgardian's, even part Asgardian's like Adam. Not to mention that her charm had 0% effect on him as well. Her abilities prey on admiration and desire which only reminded Adam of... Lilly..._

 _"Right," Adam says and leaves it at that. Canary looked confused by the statement. According to the file Jackson had showed them on Ms. Allure meta-humans of both kinds only had a 1% chance of resisting her powers and a majority of those people being some of the best. What were the odds that Matthew had to actually beat her will with his own? The answers: less than 1%. Something was off here. Canary had tried then to come up with some kind of plausible answer, but according to every file to her disposal there was no way a regular blood or energy meta-human could have shut her out._

Canary paused then in present day, or rather night. Unless, she thought, he wasn't either of those... leaving only one possible option.

_Dangerous Games_

"Come on," Adeline says to JP as she washes both of their breakfast dishes off in the kitchen sink and stacks them off neatly to the side atop the granite counter top. "We knew this was going to come eventually."

"I know," JP whined as he dried off the dishes and for a second he contemplated if Adeline made him do it. He hated drying the dishes. "but seriously high school?" JP groaned.

"You know that was part of the deal."

"I don't know what being a superhero has to do with schooling," JP muttered as a short reply. Adeline turned the knob on the faucet to stop the water.

"You'd better hope you'd have a quick wit to do those type of things," Adeline said factually, "you think Iron man was ever just a suit? He built the whole thing. What about Captain America? I bet throwing that shield on target is not easy and do you think Thor is nothing more than his hammer?" JP shrugged and set the ragged towel down, grumbling.

"Whose talking about Thor being hammered now?" Rori asks as she walks into the room, "because he totally is."

"Isn't he like, 4,000 years older than you?" Adeline says a bit approvingly.

"Oh, I can dream, Addie." Rori had this things about giving out nicknames that were subject to change without notice. "You're telling me you've never dated an older man before?" Adeline stifled a giggle.

"Not that old."

"Ooh," Rori said with a wicked gleam in her eye, "so you do get out every now and again."

"And I'm outta here," JP says walking out of the kitchen, not wanting to hear about Adeline's, his sister's, love life at all. Most of the guys who came onto her were total jerks and JP, not admittedly, would use his powers to freak them out and chase them off. JP knew Adeline would probably be pissed is she even found out.

"What was he like?" Rori asks, jumping up to sit atop the counters. "Was he sporty, creative, musical, emo? Hm, what do you think Canary?...Canary?" Canary looked up from her tablet just then.

"What was that?" She asks since she had been sitting at the kitchen island this entire time and hadn't uttered a word or had even been paying attention to the conversation in the slightest.

"What kind of boyfriend do you think Adeline might've had?" Rori asks with a smirk and Adeline blushes.

"Oh, um, I dunno. I'm really not into guys," Canary says then bites her tongue hard before quickly amending, "I mean, I haven't really dated any boys before so I wouldn't know much about it."

"You've never been on a date before?" Adeline asks and Canary shrugs. She'd been on dates, just not with boys. "What's got you so distracted today?" Adeline decides to ask instead.

"Stuff for starting school tomorrow. I just want to make sure I can find my way around without being at the mercy of some other annoying senior or something." A lie of course, but it was definitely plausible enough.

"No kidding," Rori huffed.

"Yeah," Canary answered curtly before getting up out of the chair and walking out of the kitchen.

"Send me the link, would you?" Adeline asked, thinking that it would be a very good idea to get on top of things since she hadn't ever been to an American school. Much less a private school.

"Will do!" Canary called from the hallway which linked all of the bedrooms. She walked into her own room and shut the door behind her. She flopped onto her lumpy bed, since she had not made it well that morning, and re-opened her S.H.I.E.L.D search window. She typed one key word into the search box: **HYBRID**.

* * *

The deal was simple. The kids would be taken off of the compound to a high school in NYC and they were all suppose to claim that they knew each other because they belonged to an institute for teenage protege's if anyone asked. Then they would return back to the octagon house and start their individual training, then team training would launch later. A majority of them were not excited. Adeline was because she'd never been to a formal school. Rori didn't seem to care either way, but the rest were displeased. Matthew most of all due to the still little control of his abilities. Sure, he had used then against Ms. Allure's mobsters, but he had no control over that and hadn't even willed it to happen. In fact Adam had spent a while the night before just trying to get Matthew to calm down. Adam wasn't exactly sure why he was so scared about it, but he was getting so worked up that he nearly made himself sick. Adam assumed that it had something to do with bullying and that mixed with the nervousness of his powers. After a while Adam did get Matthew to relax and he hadn't given Adam any problems about it since.

So all of the kids sat in the large car on the way to school. To be honest they all thought it was stupid. Even Adam had said it was borderline stupid. He didn't think half of the kids were ready to be put in a social environment like that, but Maria Hill's argument was the fact that the kids had all lived in normal situations before. Adam protested that none of them actually weren't, part of the reason S.H.I.E.L.D found them so easily, but Maria insisted that they needed some aspect of normalcy in their lives and Adam couldn't exactly detest to that. Besides, he had some college courses he still hadn't finished. However, it was true that more than a few of them were more than a little anxious. You'd think that having supernatural powers would help with the madness of high school, but honestly it just made it harder to blend in.

They arrived at the school, got out of the car and all moved in their separate ways. They all lived together, but they weren't close in any way shape or form. Even Rori wasn't sure if she considered herself friends with any of them as much as she'd like to. To be perfectly honest Rori didn't have many friends. Never did even at her old school. She was the daughter of the richest, most well-known, possibly one of the most hated, men alive and from all of that it was hard to tell who her real friend's are. Above all of that she was generally considered weird at her old school. Even without the full knowledge of her powers Rori had always acted a bit differently and all through middle school she was bullied and ridiculed as an annoying freak. Things were just as bad for JP before he and Adeline started in show business for those traveling psychopaths. He was considered a nuisance and a runt for being a year younger than the other kids, and for being generally obnoxious at times but only jokingly, still JP and his friends would her bullied to the point where JP used his powers to stop it accidentally exposing himself and Adeline it's what mainly drove them to leave and put them on S.H.I.E.L.D's radar.

They received their schedules and dully set off to their various classes. Most of them were lucky enough to be left alone during the whole morning. Well, most of them were. JP wasn't one of the lucky kids today. After one clumsy slip up JP found himself locked in one of the janitors closets. Since it was during class time now JP doubted anyone would hear him banging on the wooden door and he also doubted that any of his teachers would believe this for being the reason he was tardy. JP sighed and leaned back against the wall next to the door. JP would have been stuck there for a while too unless someone actually heard him. Of course that person had enhanced sensory hearing.

"Whoa, what happened?" Asked James wryly although also curiously concerned as he pried the door open. JP didn't answer and instead he just stomped out and walked passed James. "Who put you in there?" He tried again and JP sighed.

"Did we suddenly become friends or something? Unlocking a closet doesn't make us _besties_."

"Geez, well you're welcome," muttered James as he stuffed his hands into his pockets and watches JP walk away from him. James, despite himself, catches up. "What class do you have?"

"I don't know... English?"

"Hey, me too," said James now walking with JP instead of trailing behind. They both left for class, which both of them found incredibly boring. James walked with JP since they had the same next class as well, biology. They weren't friends, barely even acquaintances but it was still better than chancing it on their own starting out half way into the year. Plus, James had a few ideas of what he wanted to do if those bullies JP had came back around.

* * *

Canary had made it to lunch with barely any issues. It was mostly just teasing which she easily ignored. She got her lunch, which surprisingly looked better than most cafeteria meals and headed into the large room. She didn't get to far before she caught Adeline pressed in the corner, looking like she was about to start sobbing and her hands were pressed over her ears. Canary nearly ran over with no hesitation. "Hey, what's wrong?" She asked concerned.

"Please just shut up!" She screamed and Canary's expression went to stunned. Adeline never snapped, she only even did at JP occasionally.

"No. What's going on?" Canary pressed on. Adeline glanced up at Canary with shimmering silver eyes.

"There's too many people in here. I can't stand it! Canary please, please help me!"

"Okay, okay," said Canary trying not to go into panic mode "just take a deep breathe. We'll just eat outside, yeah?" Canary then takes Adeline's arm and hauls her out the back door. As soon as they are outside Adeline psychically relaxes. Canary sits her down on the cool grass under a tree and Adeline slumps against the trunk. "So," Canary starts as she too sits down "are you going to explain any of that or...?"

"It's a telepathy thing," she starts timidly "it's hard to process each one of their thoughts all at once and-"

"Wait, you can read minds?" Canary inquires . Adeline nods also timidly.

"Yeah... It's not just moving things with my mind I can communicate, read and even manipulate minds..." Adeline confesses and this would usually be the part where people became appalled by her.

"Dude, that is so sick!" Canary exclaims and Adeline looks up with shock which quickly changes to relief. "So you could totally read the minds of all of my crushes and give me a strait answer without me having to go in circles and jump through hoops to get a solid answer. Man, that'd be great." Adeline giggled.

"I could do that if I wanted to, but right now I just kinda want to get passed today."

"Ditto," sighed Canary "I'll go back inside and grab you something so you don't have to get all frazzled again." After that Canary and Adeline were happily settled under the tree, away from all others which was nice.

"So have you ever read any of our minds before?" Canary asked, lounging in the cool grass.

"No," Adeline answered quickly "at least, not intentionally and anything I've learned I try to forget or keep discreet."

"Pity. All the black mail you could've used."

"That's cruel!" Exclaimed Adeline.

"Hey, I was just kidding."

"No you weren't," Adeline shot back and Canary raised an eyebrow. Adeline instantly shrunk back.

"Hey, I don't mind. I'm an open book and I've got nothing to hide," Canary says with a shrug and then takes a swig of her soda.

"Everyone has something to hide," Adeline says surely and Canary nods.

"Sure there is, I just don't see the point in hiding it at all. Anything I've done is out there so I don't really care. Besides it's in the past anyways." Adeline just stares at Canary for a minute.

"I wish I was more like you."

"No you don't," says Canary with a wink. "So, you ready to go face hell again?"

"Don't remind me," Adeline says with an eye roll as she collects both her and Canary's tray and tosses them in the garbage can.

"Well, at least the day's almost over to nothing else can really go wrong today," Canary says, opting to take the round about way around the school for Adeline's sake.

"Jinx!" She cries and Canary laughs.

"I'm not superstitious."

"Neither am I, but-" she trails off as Canary hears the noise. Chanting and shouting. Canary and Adeline both glance at each other before running to the front of the school. They were both shocked to see both Matthew and James involved in a fight, one that was greatly outnumbered but one they didn't seem to be losing. "Oh my god!" Adeline cried as she saw. Canary watched as another guy started to shove his way through the crowd, more than likely to join the fight by the looks of him.

"Hey!" Canary said, grabbing his shoulder. He turned his head back, which was a mistake, and Canary punched him in the jaw causing him to stumble and fall over.

"What? You need you that little bitch to fight your battles for ya?" Taunted one of the boys which only earned him a black eye, courtesy of Matthew. Things were going from bad to worse when Matthew's eye color was slowly starting to change and in front of lots of people.

"Damn it!" Canary cried as she tried to push her way forward. Adeline was completely lost on what to do until she saw JP outside of the crowd with blood on his shirt. She rushed over to him and found he had a bloody nose and she could only imagine how the fight broke out.

Alice and Rori were present in the crowd of the fight and were seeing what was happening. They could also see that some of the other kids were recording it all on their cells phones and if even one of them got a glimpse of Matthew's eyes it would be bad news for all of them. Alice and Rori rushed down the stairs way of the main entrance to the building and started to grab phones and turn them off or in Alice's case break some of them.

Not a moment later did several teachers rush out to break up the fight, which took quite a while.

"What is going on here?!" The principal demanded.

"Ask those freak shows from the institute!" Shouted one of the boys and all of his friends began yelling and going on about the same thing. "They started the whole damn thing!" Matthew took a step forward and James instantly grabbed him back, not wanting to get in anymore trouble than they already would be.

"We didn't start the fight," said James over the other boys. Although, given the evidence, it didn't look good in their favor. The other junior boys who had fought with them were a mess of bruises and blood while Matthew and James were mainly unscathed.

"Who even let those damn freaks in here?!" Shouted another one of the junior boys, which started another argument between all of them. The teachers again had to break it up before it turned into another fight. The teachers then decided to put the institute kids in one of the elective classrooms, which was empty until they could calm down, the same with the group of boys from the lacrosse team which had also been involved.

* * *

"You are all so stupid," mocked Alice from atop one of the desks in the room "you almost exposed yourselves and ruined this for all of us," she hissed.

"We're not suppose to be talking," muttered James.

"Oh and now you suddenly care about the rules?" Taunted Alice.

"What even happened anyways?" Asked Canary to the others, since she and Adeline had gotten there pretty late and were just as confused as most of the others.

"...Earlier I found JP locked in one of the janitors closets." Adeline looked upset at this. "Some idiot boys thought it'd be funny or something. Those same boys showed up again after 4th period. They were going on about how since he wasn't there attendance went on forever especially since he was a new student and the teacher had to go check with registration and all that so now since class started so late they had lots of extra homework.. They tried to make JP apologize to them."

"Are you kidding me?!" Adeline growls. James shakes his head sadly.

"Believe it," James muttered "anyways, I was there at the time and Matthew was at his locker right near us too. He pretty much told the guys to, ya know, fuck off and they took offense to that."

"Who wouldn't?" Said Canary looking at Matthew who was seated in a desk a little ways away from the others staying very silent.

"So then," James continues "they started to tease Matthew about defending him. He ignored the other boys and they went back to JP and when JP reiterated what Matthew said.. they decked him."

"What?!" Adeline exclaimed. It did explain the bloody nose.

"And then I kicked him back and brought JP outside, Matthew followed and so did the other boys and things just went from bad to worse..."

"You mean when you two started displaying your unnatural abilities to an unsuspecting group of teenagers?" Alice continued to reprimand rudely "yeah, we know. Two more minutes and Matthew's eyes and veins would have shifted and we would all be locked up for real-"

"I know! Would you shut the hell up already?!" Matthew shouted, rising from his seat and pushing the wooden chair back in the process.

"Let's not fight, okay?" Rori said quietly and it doesn't even register to half of them.

"Another two minutes of your stupidity, maybe even a little less time and-" Alice starts to continue anyways.

"Both of you cut it out already!" Canary said, getting between them which might not have been the best idea but she did it anyways. "Yeah, we all know that it sucks, but we play it up like this then we'll look guilty and imbalanced for sure."

"She's right," JP mutters. They all mutters various things and sit back down on either desks, chairs or the floor.

"We're so gonna get expelled," mutters Rori. A few of them nod.

"And Agent Hill is going to kill us," added Matthew "probably Adam too."

"Thank you so much for that uplifting note," commented Alice sarcastically.

"Hey, at least we're not fighting anymore," said Canary as she moves up from her chair and sits atop a desk.

"Speaking of the fight," started JP and Canary mentally face-palmed, just imagining where this was going. "What sparks all those psychical changes?"

"None of your business," Matthew snaps.

"No, it is a perfectly valid question," Alice joins in "what happens?"

"I don't know okay? I just get really pissed off and I shift or something, no one will tell me anything about it." There was silence through out the room for a minute.

"So, you don't know anything about your powers?" Asked Adeline quietly. Matthew sighs.

"Not a thing."

"Wow," says Alice after a minute, sliding off of her desk "that is really messed up. S.H.I.E.L.D is a real pain in the ass."

"Says the girl who practically goes out of her way to lick their boots," mutters Adeline. Adeline expects some witty, harsh retort from Alice, but the ginger only smirks.

"I'm not so low as to bow down to them, none of us are, but the more that they judge my loyalty highly, the more I get to find out." James grins.

"Ooh, now I see why you're the drafted super spy of the gang. I had no idea you were so skilled."

"Yeah well," Alice says, looking out the window "there's a lot you don't know about me."

"In fact we really don't know anything about each other," Rori chimes in. Matthew scoffs.

"Maybe that's a good thing," he adds lowly.

"So you're not going to tell us how you know how to fight?" JP asked with slight enthusiasm.

"I, uh, don't know how," Matthew stuttered slowly, turning around so that he was facing the circle. A few of them just stared at Matthew for a second.

"You're joking, right?" Inquired James "cause you were pulling moves that I hadn't even heard of before and my Dad is a bit of a militant fanatic."

"Mine too," Canary added "but I've never seen a kid pull those parlor tricks off before." Matthew chewed his lower lips for a second.

"I never really knew how to fight until I got my powers... It was really strange. It's like I was normal one day and then I woke up and it was just all there."

"I have never heard of that before and my older brother studies meta-human physiology," said Rori as she put her feet up on one of the desks.

"I clearly hadn't either. I didn't know a thing about it...I, uh, kinda decked Adam when we first met." JP, Rori and James burst out laughing. Even Alice grinned in amusement from where she still stood at the window.

"You decked him?!" JP sputtered, laughing like a fool.

"Used him to break a street lamp actually..." Matthew very nearly whispered.

"Wow, you must be really strong then," added Canary, her curiosity from this morning kicking back in.

"I guess that's one of my powers," Matthew said with a shrug.

"One of them?" Canary shot back. Matthew started to look frazzled from her intent of questioning, which he'd surely picked up on.

"I'm sure what he means is that we all have weird, strange skills," started Adeline, being able to read his sudden wave of distress. Adeline didn't blame him, she would be pretty flustered too if someone started pestering her about things she barely understood. "I can twist my spine around backwards." Rori's eyes widened and twitched.

"Ew, what?" She question a little grossed out.

"It's called contortion. It's where you can alter or twist or fold your body into weird shapes. It was an act I used to do back in Sokovia."

"You used to be in a show?" Asked James interested. Adeline nodded.

"JP and I both were. It's how we got around after our mother got sick..." Good job, Adeline, way to dampen the mood "I could show you all if you'd like." They all looked around at each other and nodded and agreed. Adeline slung her back pack off of her shoulder and moved to the front of the classroom. She put one foot forward and raised both of her arms up. She flipped down so that now she was standing on her hands. She slung her legs down so that they were moving under her arms. She moved her legs under her torso so that her toes could tap her shoulders all while she was holding herself up with her arms. She then all of the sudden flipped back and whipped her legs back so that she landed in a split, which made some of the boys cringe. She rolled back from a split back onto her hands and proceeded to do various back flips across the tiled floor. She landed in another split, but this time didn't get back up immediately. She moved to that she was kneeling. She moved her head and torso under one leg. She pulled her left leg far behind her so that it was over her right shoulder and so that her right leg was extended straight to the left. Adeline spun her left leg back so that it knocked a chalkboard eraser on the floor. She untwisted herself then, stood up for a moment before bending over backwards, which also caused some more of the kids to cringe, she moved her torso through her legs again and then pushed herself up with her hands. She picked the eraser out in front of her up with her feet and lifted it up on the left one. She then began kicking it up and down, alternating feet. She then twisted her spine and torso around when she flicked the eraser high up with her right foot and caught it with her left hand. She tossed it aside and straightened her torso back out before pushing herself back to stand on her head. She teetered back and extended her legs out like an in-air split and she fell back onto her feet. All of the kids clapped for her, some were still cringing.

"That was insane!" Rori exclaimed, completely full of wonder and enthusiasm.

"You are ridiculously flexible," Matthew said in awe "I think the rest of us would just snap ourselves in half."

"I could do all the flips. I used to be involved in gymnastics, a lot of the techniques seem very similar," added Alice very matter-of-fact. Adeline nodded, slightly sweaty. James tossed her a water bottle and she thanked him silently.

"I liked how you flipped the eraser around with your feet, it reminded me of when I used to play soccer at my old school," James said, smiling fond of the memory. "I was the starting goalie."

"Cool," Adeline said, still marginally out of breath.

"So, since our lovely little talent show has concluded we need to move on to the next order of business. How the hell do we prove our innocence and hide this from Agent Hill?" Said Alice, getting them all back on their toes and thinking.

"There's cameras in all of the main hallways and out in front and of the school," Matthew pointed out.

"But you have to have administrative access to get to the faculty control room," stated Adeline miserably.

"I can get to it," Alice stated.

"What?" Adeline asked, curiously eyeing the girl.

"The control room, I can get to it, but there's no guarantee that I can copy the footage once I'm inside."

"I could do that if you could get me in, Alice," Rori added helpfully. James remembered when she had found Matthew on the streets on DC no problem. This would be a piece of cake for her.

"But how are you two going to get out?" Matthew inquired, knowing that there were teachers watching in the hallways outside of the classrooms.

"Like this," Rori said, pushing her hair back and moving forward to knock on the door incessantly. "Hey!" She called out. One of the male teachers faculty went to open the door. "I need to go use the bathroom, like, now."

"The faculty meeting is almost concluded, can't you wait?" He asked annoyed.

"Not this time of the month," Rori said, acting a little frantic and the man turned bright red and suddenly got very flustered, stuttering and fumbling over his words.

"Oh, um, uh, right. I mean go right ahead," he said moving aside. He didn't even question it when Alice walked out as well, not even wanting to ask or get into that conversation. Alice and Rori walked down the halls and Alice grinned and whispered.

"Nice job," Alice said amused and it wasn't like her to really compliment anyone. She must have been in a good mood.

"All men instantly shut down when a girl mentions her period," Rori stated obviously.

"Isn't that the truth," Alice muttered as her Rori made their way back. The door into the control room was locked, obviously, but they were old school locks, so Alice had no problems picking it and getting the door open. They both made their way inside and were pleased to find that it was empty. Rori sat down and immediately got to work.

"Damn it!" Rori exclaimed as she pulled up the video, "there's no audio. I mean there is, but it's all fuzz. Too much background noise and I can't clear it with the decades old software they have here."

"You don't need to," Alice says "just skip forwards about fifteen frames and freeze." Rori does and sure enough a clear picture of one of the boys hitting JP shows clearly. Rori zooms in on that and takes her Stark phone out of her pocket. She presses it to the computer screen and the footage transfers immediately.

"Never before has piracy been so easy," Rori jokes as she slips her phone back into her pocket. They both exit the room and Alice locks the door behind them. They both slip back into the classroom while grinning.

* * *

After their training sessions, which they all found very difficult, they all decided to watch a movie that night. Rori actually hadn't fully been kidding when she made that little joke about piracy to Alice, because she happened to pull up a movie that wasn't even out of theaters yet and put it on the living room TV.

Adam got back to the house late that night since he had a make-up class that he absolutely had to finish. He sometimes questioned why he was still in school if he did in fact have a full time job. And when he said full time he meant full time as in 24/7, but if nothing else he had to prove to himself that he could graduate. Adam was surprised to find all of the kids in one room together...not fighting or shouting or screaming or maiming. Adam quirked an eyebrow in confusion. He wondered what must have transpired today. Maybe they finally came to some sort of understanding. Adam's phone vibrated in his pocket, he held it out to find that he had 34 texts from Maria Hill. Adam had a feeling he was about to find out exactly what they'd been up to.

* * *

The next morning Adeline opted to clean up the various snack bowls and paper cups that littered the coffee table and end table. She seemed to be the only neat freak in a house full of slobs. Although being able to move objects with her mind did help to speed up the process a bit, so long as the dishes weren't glass, she had a bad habit of over-extending her abilities and shattering objects with the force of it all. Nobody cared if paper cups got crumpled, Adeline just saw it as compacting them so that she didn't have to take out the garbage as often.

A paper cut floated through the air aided by silver lights before it knocked into something and that something muttered about it. "Jackson," Adeline said as she looked over apologetically. The paper cup fell and the left over soda contents spilled on the floor and some on Jackson's shoes. "I'm so sorry. I didn't think anyone else was up this early," she sputtered.

"It's alright, I mean I did barge into your house," Jackson said quietly and clutched the glass tablet he was holding a bit closer to his side.

"It's not really my house. It's S.H.I.E.L.D and you're a part of S.H.I.E.L.D so..." Adeline trailed off awkwardly into the silence and neither of them said or did anything for a moment. "Um, I should probably clean that up before it stains," Adeline muttered finally and she went to go grab some paper towels from the kitchen to clean off the tiled floor.

"I'll help," offered Jackson as he clumsily put the glass tablet down and followed Adeline.

"You don't have to," Adeline said politely "it's my mess after all."

"It's no trouble and besides I want to," Jackson chimes as he takes the towels from Adeline. Adeline grins lightly and they both walk back into the main room. "I heard, uh, about what happened today," Jackson said to make conversation. He went down on his knee's and began to mop up the excess soda. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I mean, I wasn't even in the fight," Adeline said curtly. Jackson nodded. "Miss Hill isn't happy, is she..." and it wasn't even a question.

"No, um.. not really," Jackson stutters "I'm sure she'll get over it though, I mean you were only defending yourselves." Adeline smiled and even blushed a bit.

"It's sweet of you to just assume that we were the innocent party. Miss Hill and Adam instantly assumed that we started the whole mess," Adeline explained with a small exasperated sigh.

"Well I believe that you didn't," Jackson claimed as he set the sopping towel off to the side "I wouldn't ever just assume things about you guys that like." Adeline now was smiling wide.

"Thanks Jackson. You're a really good friend, ya know." Jackson flashed her a crooked grin, albeit a slightly nervous one. He pushed his glasses back up and started to stutter under his breath.

"Since we are, ya know, friends and all, would you maybe- sometime like to, with me, go out sometime, or-"

"I'd like that," Adeline said cutting into his incessant stuttering and ending his awkward suffering. He nodded quickly.

"Okay."

Canary, who was standing in the doorway of the hall leading to the bedrooms smirked as she watched. She slowly backed away and left the two by themselves.


	17. Episode 9 (Being Inhuman Pt 1)

**Previously on "Dangerous Games"...**

 _"What's got you so distracted today?" Adeline decides to ask instead._

 _"Stuff for starting school tomorrow. I just want to make sure I can find my way around without being at the mercy of some other annoying senior or something." A lie of course, but it was definitely plausible enough._

 _"No kidding," Rori huffed._

 _"Yeah," Canary answered curtly before getting up out of the chair and walking out of the kitchen._

 _"Send me the link, would you?" Adeline asked, thinking that it would be a very good idea to get on top of things since she hadn't ever been to an American school. Much less a private school._

 _"Will do!" Canary called from the hallway which linked all of the bedrooms. She walked into her own room and shut the door behind her. She flopped onto her lumpy bed, since she had not made it well that morning, and re-opened her S.H.I.E.L.D search window. She typed one key word into the search box: **HYBRID**._

 _After one clumsy slip up JP found himself locked in one of the janitors closets. Since it was during class time now JP doubted anyone would hear him banging on the wooden door and he also doubted that any of his teachers would believe this for being the reason he was tardy. JP sighed and leaned back against the wall next to the door. JP would have been stuck there for a while too unless someone actually heard him. Of course that person had enhanced sensory hearing._

 _"Whoa, what happened?" Asked James wryly although also curiously concerned as he pried the door open. JP didn't answer and instead he just stomped out and walked passed James. "Who put you in there?" He tried again and JP sighed._

 _"Did we suddenly become friends or something? Unlocking a closet doesn't make us besties."_

 _"Geez, well you're welcome," muttered James as he stuffed his hands into his pockets and watches JP walk away from him. James, despite himself, catches up. "What class do you have?"_

 _"I don't know... English?"_

 _"Hey, me too," said James now walking with JP instead of trailing behind._

 _"It's a telepathy thing," she starts timidly "it's hard to process each one of their thoughts all at once and-"_

 _"Wait, you can read minds?" Canary inquires . Adeline nods also timidly._

 _"Yeah... It's not just moving things with my mind I can communicate, read and even manipulate minds..." Adeline confesses and this would usually be the part where people became appalled by her._

 _"Dude, that is so sick!" Canary exclaims_

 _Adam got back to the house late that night since he had a make-up class that he absolutely had to finish. He sometimes questioned why he was still in school if he did in fact have a full time job. And when he said full time he meant full time as in 24/7, but if nothing else he had to prove to himself that he could graduate. Adam was surprised to find all of the kids in one room together...not fighting or shouting or screaming or maiming. Adam quirked an eyebrow in confusion. He wondered what must have transpired today. Maybe they finally came to some sort of understanding. Adam's phone vibrated in his pocket, he held it out to find that he had 34 texts from Maria Hill. Adam had a feeling he was about to find out exactly what they'd been up to._

* * *

Canary was up very early that morning. She was laying in bed and had her tablet propped up against her knees. After their little bonding day a few days ago, Canary had convinced Rori to change Canary's informational access level. It proved to be very helpful in her research.

 _S.H.I.E.L.D Index: Category Hybrid._

 _Jiaying: Meta-human level 5 out of 5._

 _Phoenix: Meta-human level 5 out of 5._

 _Hemlock: Meta-human level 5 out of 5._

 _TASK: Meta-human level 5 out of 5._

 _Hulk: Meta-human level 6 out of 5._

 _6 out of 5?_ Canary thought wryly and then suspiciously. From what Adam had let on about Hybrids, one being over the chart probably wasn't a good thing. Canary tapped on each file and with each one she slowly became more and more unnerved.

 _Jiaying Johnson, brought back from the **dead**. Planned to turn all humans to stone and free her half alien race on Earth. Phoenix, after death, controversial fact of that, sought to destroy all human life and general destruction of the planet. Hulk, responsible for the destruction of many cities around the world. Created from a man, somehow, surviving a radioactive lab accident. Supposedly **invulnerable** according to **all** sources._

As far as Canary could deter most all dangerous Hybrids all had N.D.E's. Near death experiences. Maybe that's what triggered the ones with the more demented or uncontrollable natures. Canary continued her search. According to S.H.I.E.L.D Hybrids were nearly impossible to shut down and the matters that Canary found that have been previously tried were quite gruesome. For example: if you poisoned their blood a Hybrid would use their energy based powers against you instead and vise versa if you tried to inhibit their energy based powers. Unless you were to shut off both simultaneously, they would burn whatever you used against them out of their systems and continue on. It was actually pretty scary. She also read that Hybrids were known to have extreme resistance and resilience. It reminded Canary about what went down with Matthew and Ms. Allure. Adam claimed that barely anyone could resist her and Matthew did his first time. Canary typed her next key word into the search box: **MATTHEW ROSS.**

_Dangerous Games_

"I bet you're enjoying team training now," Adam said with a smirk.

"Yeah, we get it now," said James, even he was breathing a bit hard "don't use our abilities in public."

"Or like that on regular people who you could easily pulverize like nothing," Adam deadpans.

"How long did it take you again to take out the whole lacrosse team?" Asked Jackson who was standing off to the side as it was still his job to report and file in on their progress. He sounded a little more enthusiastic than he probably should have.

"Not the point," Adam said dryly "I myself am definitely not above a little revenge. I made high school a literal living hell for some kids," Adam snickered to himself "it was-..." the half god stopped himself and cleared his throat. Through all the thoughts of all his magically induced tricks he had pulled, he forgot that he was trying to make a point. "But given the destructive nature of both of your abilities you do know that you could have _killed_ someone." And on that note James, Matthew and even Jackson stayed uncharacteristically silent. Adam was seriously annoyed by Jackson at times. He was a good kid, but an obnoxious intern. Although Adam didn't mind the fact that now Jackson could do all of his reports instead of Adam having to write them all out on the weekend. "You can't let your anger or abilities get the better of you no matter what."

"Oh, like you've never lost control before," Matthew muttered, the statement also going back to what Adam had just said a few seconds ago. Adam nearly glared at the kid.

"I have and I'm not even going to tell you what happened when I did," Adam said sternly and Matthew immediately shut up. Adam didn't like to be tough on the kids, but he and Maria Hill already had to face hell for their actions on Monday several days ago and what they did was pretty mindless. "Let's go, another 1000 push-ups."

"Oh come on!" Both of the boys whined. They had already been doing this special training session with Adam for a while after they got back from detention after school.

"You've both proven, _publicly_ , to be powerful meta-humans, you can handle it," Adam says now siting back on one of the benches in the room and playing an app on his phone "besides, you've got to make up for the time you were in detention."

"You're insane," Matthew muttered.

"Exactly," said Adam, tapping something on his phone "now get to it." Both of the boys started and whenever they'd finish Adam would give them something else to do. It was clear that Adam was mad after the S.H.I.E.L.D superiors chewed him out Monday night. It was obvious payback... that had been running since Monday night, it was Friday now and Adam had them going from the time they got home 'til the time that they dropped at night. Adam now currently had them doing pull-ups.

Matthew watched as Adam just sat there on his damn phone. It pissed him off, Matthew knew for damn certain that Adam wasn't perfect and he doubted that he had to suffer any repercussion when he messed up and he and James were protecting someone for crying out loud! Sure, maybe it had gone a little too far, but those guys sure as hell weren't going to mess with JP again. Matthew stopped and dropped back down to his feet on the linoleum tile. Adam glanced up at Matthew, giving him a look as if to say, _you aren't done yet_. Matthew lost his cool momentarily, tore the pole off of the iron supports and threw it into the wall, missing Adam's head barely. James stared wide-eyed and Jackson gasped, Adam didn't even flinch. The enraged teenager took off upstairs.

"Well at least he's got that power down," Adam sighed as he brushed a piece of dry wall off of his shoulder and went back to his iphone app.

* * *

"A mission?" Adam questioned while as the other kids were all getting exited by the mere prospect of what Maria had just said, while as Adam on the other hand was skeptical about the notion. Maria nodded to the kids before answering to Adam, albeit quietly.

"Think of it as more of a field trip than anything. There was a supposed meta-human robbery by the looks of the crime scene, the kids are just there to survey and learn, see if they can't pick up on a few things. They'll be in absolutely no danger at all." Adam nodded and gestured for Maria to continue her explanation to the children. "Last night there were several 911 calls about an armed robbery, the only thing being that there was no weapons."

"No weapons?" Questioned Alice incredulously "how on earth could it have been an armed robbery with no rifles involved?"

"Could it have been a meta-human?" Canary questioned openly as well. Maria nodded to Canary.

"Exactly. All evidence suggests that the culprits used some form of unidentified superhuman abilities. What we're going to do today is head down there and see if we can't survey more of what actually went on." All of the kids piled into the large truck that was mainly used as to transport all of them since there was so many. They all sat down on the padded seats that were lined horizontally lined up instead of a normal car where all of the seats would be line up in front of each row of about two or three seats. Maria and Adam sat in the front seats, which were vertical and normal. Matthew, James, Rori and Alice slid onto the right side while Adeline, JP and Canary filled in the left.

"So, you and Jackson, huh?" Canary said with a little wink to Adeline. Adeline blushed. JP gagged dramatically and opted to just look out the window and ignore the transpiring conversation.

"It's strange," Alice says as she crosses her legs and moves back against the padded backing of her seat.

"Jealous?" Adeline says mockingly. Alice snorts.

"Hardly. I'm just curious as to why he suddenly has taken an interest in you," Alice says casually even though Adeline looks mildly hurt by the inquiring statement.

"We all know Jackson's incredibly shy, maybe he just was taking his time or building up the nerve to ask her out," Rori suggests. Alice shakes her head.

"Then he would have attempted some kind of awkward confrontation."

"And you're saying this because you know everything?" Adeline snaps. Alice had to be her least favorite person in the group. She was always so arrogant and depressing. Adeline briefly wondered if Matthew and Alice should get together since they were both such downers and maybe Matthew's anger would cover over Alice's arrogance.

"I'm saying this because I know _people_ and when things don't add up that generally means that said person has ulterior motives. Something to gain maybe?"

"Did you ever consider that he might just like me?" Adeline snapped again, more heated this time and she grew tense in her seat and even causing hairline cracks in the glass windows.

"You're unbearably naive," Alice mutters "at best he's probably just a regular teenage boy thinking about sex-"

"And now this conversation is over," said JP cringing all the while at the thoughts Alice had implicated.

"What is it with all of you guys just having to ruin things for me?!" And then the car window shattered, spraying thick shards glass over Alice, Matthew, Rori and James. They all cried out whether it'd be out of surprise or the glass cutting their skin. Maria and Adam of course instantly looked back as the commotion spilled over.

"Hey!" Adam yelled back to all of them and after a few minutes he got them all to settle down again. Maria parked the truck at the sight and Adam pulled Adeline aside for a little so that she could calm down.

"I didn't mean to do that," Adeline says quietly, looking down at the concrete of the parking garage outside the bank that the robbery took place in.

"I know," said Adam as he stuffed his hands into his pockets and leaned back against the car. "It's like I said about energy meta-humans, do you remember?"

"It's tied to my emotions," Adeline said weakly. Adam nodded.

"Uh huh, which is why you've got to try and keep it mellow-"

"I'm sorry," Adeline whimpered again and Adam sighed, deflating.

"Look, it's not a big deal. It's just a stupid car window that can be fixed easily. Here, watch this," Adam holds out his hand and mutters something in a language Adeline can't even begin to understand and each time Adam mutters the strange string of words more and more of the glass shards float up in a bleary haze of bright gold, like the color of the sun. Adeline watches, not moving and not blinking. The glass pieces move back into their place in the metal frame and it's almost like the pieces melt together exactly back into place and stay that way when the golden light fades. Adeline's mouth gapes.

"How did you do that?" She asks, now very much distracted from before. "I thought your power was controlling the weather."

"It is," Adam affirmed "but, the whole Asgardian thing warrants magic."

"Magic?" Adeline says skeptically.

"Really, it is. You see, Asgardian's are an, well for lack of a better term, _alien_ race, but they treat themselves like gods up in their home world of Asgard. My father explained this to me at a young age."

"Is he one of them? An Asgardian?"

"Through and through," Adam says with a small reminiscent grin "he was pretty much the very definition of their ways."

"Have you ever seen it?"

"Asgard?" Adam questions to clarify. Adeline nods. "No, I haven't seen it myself, but my Dad used to describe it very vividly."

"Used to?" Adeline asks then quickly tilts her head back down afraid that she's pressed something personal.

"It's okay," says Adam, catching her nervousness "he's on Asgard. He's fairly important and needed there. Asgard really hasn't made it passed the stage of monarchy yet." Adeline was struck again.

"Monarchy-and your Dad?- Does that make you some kind of royalty or something up there?" Adam laughs at her enthusiasm.

"Yeah, something like that," he answers and Adeline is still in a minor state of awe from all that she had just learned about their S.O. Adam was generally kept to himself what it concerned matters regarding his past or even any detail about himself really. It wasn't unnerving to Adeline as much as it was saddening. "You ready to join the others now?" Adeline nods and they head off.

The scene around them is more of wreckage than anything. Cars are flipped over, bricks pillars holding up upper layers of the parking garage are damaged or broken, concrete slabs are cracked several feet a piece and even some lights are still smoking and there's pieces glass underneath them. Adam whistled lowly. "I thought you said this was a robbery, not crazy superhuman vandalism."

"The damage is extensive, yes," Maria says while looking at something on a tablet that an agent put in front of her. "We can't stay too long without causing suspicion. Let's make this quick, shall we?" The kids are told that they can look around freely so long as they don't touch anything. Rori walks around and looks at one of the flipped over cars.

"64 mustang completely crushed. Shame," Rori said thinking out loud.

"71 was better," said a male voice from behind Rori and James walked up. Rori laughed shortly and shook her head.

"Are you kidding me? With the, what, five foot flat hood? Ridiculous."

"Yeah, because the 64 was so much better with those dorky, uneven rivets on the side," James challenged sarcastically. Rori laughed again.

"Touche'," she said looking over the damage.

"I'm surprised you know that much about cars," James mused, looking around the area.

"Why?" Rori questions defensively "because I'm a girl?"

"Not what I was gonna say," James protested "it's just most people are into the new all the new models. That or the models from the last decade."

"Hover cars," Rori muttered "totally overrated."

"Unless you count the fact that it doesn't run on gasoline. Better for the environment," James adds. Rori shrugs.

"I should have guessed you would be a boy scout for the environment," she says with a small smirk.

"And you're not?"

"Again, touche'," Rori amends. A short moment after that they all start to hear a strange high pitched ringing. Rori and James look around confused. James catches sight of some of the others and see's that they are just as confused as he is. Matthew is cringing and covering his ears as the his extra sensory powers are not helping him here.

Adam looks curious, though more anxious about the noise. He looks to Matthew and mouths the question 'can you find it?' Matthew shrugs, unsure, but Adam coaxes him to try. Matthew takes a breath and uncovers his ears and started to walk around the area, still looking very uncomfortable. The sound was radiating through his head and making him pretty disoriented since this far he couldn't control the mass effect of his powers. It was either 0% or 100% with nothing in between. It hadn't been any easier lately since Matthew had been so pissed off at Adam that he hadn't let him help him to control his abilities and it certainly wasn't getting any easier. His body started to burn the years of drugs out of his system at faster and faster rate. Matthew finally was able to pinpoint it and he walked closer right before the concrete began to crack and shatter on the third floor of the parking garage above them and the second floor, which they were on. Matthew got shot back by the concrete seeming to collapse and blast to the right. It was like a spontaneous earth quake. Adam held out his hands and tried to use his own weather abilities to stop the strange vibration, but he wasn't having much luck. The agents that were on sight were quickly attempting to get the kids who were there out and evacuated, which proved to be more effective. Rubble rained down on them all, but a large chunk of concrete fell from above them as well, right over one of the kids.

"Matthew, look out!"


	18. Episode 9 (Being Inhuman Pt 2)

_"Matthew, look out!"_ The cry from Adam vaguely registered through Matthew's mind. Although before the words even fully processed his body was already moving into action and that was something Matthew was sure that he wouldn't get used to; the fact that his psychical self could move with barely any of neurological aid. His entire body seemed to know what it was doing, Matthew's mind was still playing a bit of catch up. His entire form felt numb, but invigorated at the same time, almost like he'd suddenly woken up fully, but there was still that burning sensation that always pulsed through his veins. It was exactly like his blood had morphed into gasoline and someone just struck a match to it and damn it all it was painful but the rush of the situation usually masked it. Matthew wasn't even sure how it was psychically possible that he had moved a good sixteen feet, from where he was down on the ground, in a matter of seconds and by the look Adam was giving him, he had no clue either. Matthew felt as though now that he could see and hear everything and every blaring sight and sound triangulated to give him an exact mapping of where everything was. Through his enhanced sensations he could actually feel where the earth quake was emitting and the force of it was somehow getting weaker then stronger the more Adam pushed against it. It shouldn't get weaker, Matthew thought, with the resistance and build up it should only get stronger. So his curiosity and strange active effects he sprinted towards the quaking force, maneuvering and doing crazy flips over falling and projectile objects. Adam seemed pretty stoked, but even more worried.

"What are you doing?!" He shouted to the crazed teenager. Adam thought he had truly lost it. If running towards the force of an Earth Quake wasn't enough, Matthew's powers were also bound to over-load at any minute and do some serous damage. However, Matthew didn't stop due to Adam's calling out. Matthew catches someone standing on a building not too far off with their arms extended outwards. It's just a silhouette from the harsh glare the sun is sending off and Matthew with his extra sensory power his eyes are burning like hell. Matthew vaguely wonders if that person is causing this, but who can cause an earth quake? Matthew doesn't get any further with his thoughts before his body jumps back into action. He, somehow, pulls a six foot broken iron beam from the wall and readies to throw it. Matthew's mind tells him that he can't, but his body isn't even taking reason into question, a greater part of him is urging him to move now and unable to resist it he jumps up to the next level of the parking garage. He throws the beam downwards at an angle so that it will avoid the intense force of propulsion. It very nearly lands right on top of the person, slicing their left arm and leg at best, but causing them to fall over and flail their arms upwards in the process. The quaking stops over the general area though as the person holds their arms up whilst falling a powerful blast of force hits Matthew directly head on and he flies back, completely blown off of the parking garage level, plummeting a good forty feet. _This was definitely gonna hurt...and probably get me killed_ , Matthew thinks, but that's as far as he gets before his own backlash gets him. Blood starts to pour, gusts of wind swirl around him and the world fades to black.

* * *

 _Beep, beep, beep._ Matthew is very irritated by the noise. He looks about his surroundings, the large medical room he had stayed in when he was first introduced to S.H.I.E.L.D. After his fight with Adam, after he unintentionally made blood pour out of his freaking eyes and pours and whatever else. "De ja vu," he mutters as he slowly sits up in the bed. He then realizes that he's talking to himself. Not a good sign. "Except this damn thing wasn't here." The heart monitor still beeps irritatingly and Matthew hits it, meaning only to tap in annoyance, but it goes flying towards the other side of the room, just as Serena was walking in. Matthew feels his heart pound and he knows it's a heavy piece of equipment, but all is well because all Serena had to do was lift her hand. Serena holds her hands up, dropping the clipboard she was holding onto the floor, it clattered against the tile and the machine stop moving in mid air. With a gentle gesture of her finger it floated back to to it's original spot.

"Now if you're done with that," Serena mused, displeased. Matthew's groggy mind was still registering what was going on. He'd forgotten about his previous assumptions about her, but now they were all back and confirmed. Matthew looked down, away from her a little ashamed. Serena brushed it aside nonchalantly. She picks up the clipboard and moves to of the cupboards, rummaging through it. "A few of you took quite a hit, nothing too serious though. I think you took the brunt of it."

"Adam?"

"He's fine. You're lucky actually that he was well enough to grab you before you impacted with the street. I'm glad to see you're alright." Matthew raised an eyebrow almost skeptically. "Matthew, you know you're my favorite patient, but I really wouldn't want to see you in here for intensive care." Serena pulls some things out of the cupboard and walks over, her heals clicking on the tile. She sits down on the side of Matthew's bed. "Look here," she says as the points a small light into his eyes and holds out her finger for his eyes to focus on. "Good, there doesn't seem to be any damage there."

"You have telekinesis?" Matthews asks, even though he clearly knows the answer. Serena nods and examines his other eye.

"Among other things," she answers. She clicks off the light and writes something down on the paper attached to her clipboard. So old-fashioned for S.H.I.E.L.D. "I just need to run a quick test," Serena announces grabbing a long needle from the table next to her. Matthew nearly scowls.

"More blood?" He questions distastefully. He would have assumed that they'd gotten their fill from before, but apparently they wouldn't be satisfied until they'd bled him dry.

"Actually no. I know it looks that way but this is actually to test for any unusual energy fluctuations. Just a precaution." Serena gently pushed Matthew back and and straitened out one of his arms. She stuck the needle in his arm and the end of it started to illuminate green and Matthew realized that he couldn't move his arm at all.

"What are these?" He asked as Serena gently slid another one into his skin. It really was painless, but it felt like something was tingling and crawling under his skin, petrifying it and holding him still. The sensations and feeling were pretty much numbed out as well.

"This is a technique show to us by another, more reclusive, group of meta-humans. I was tasked by S.H.I.E.L.D to alter it; it measures energy outputs and stabilizes the effects for the general norm of the person."

"That's amazing... and it feels really strange," Matthew says as Serena pokes him with a third one underneath his shoulder blade and then pokes one more into the large vein in his forearm. That one really feels weird.

"It took me awhile to re-calibrate them, however it was completely worth it. These come in handy for sure, lately when Adeline's equilibrium what unbalanced due to the events with Ms. Allure." Matthew frowned at the mere mention of that woman. He wasn't really even sure what she or any of it was about.

"What even was with that guy who messed with Adeline and I?" Matthew questions sourly and mockingly, not even caring if he got an answer or not, but of course Serena provided one. She seemed pretty open and not one to hold things back.

"His name was Lash. He had the ability to manipulate kinetic energy, the type all energy humans have inside them. Like you and Adeline, so it was easy for him to shift the energies to set you both off. I'm still not sure why he didn't pull some of the energy-"

"Pull some of the energy?" Matthew questions out loud, he tries to sit up but his arm won't budge and so he lays still. "You mean, like, taking our powers?"

"No, not exactly. Copy them yes, but not take. He would be able to replicate them for a short time before he had to absorb more. Meta-humans with abilities over kinetic energy tend to be fairly dangerous to Phantoms and Hybrids in particular," Serena explains and she looks at Matthew. Matthew sighs because he already knows all of the crap the comes with being a hybrid and he really didn't want to hear anything else about his stupidity or carelessness, he's been getting that enough from Adam and Agent Hill lately and he was positive that they were going to drill him later for what he did this morning.

"What was he? He looked so-"

"Inhuman," Serena cut in. She tapped one of the ends of the needles, nodded approvingly and scribbled something down on her note sheet. "Exactly." Matthew flashed her a very confused look and so Serena amended to clarify. "S.H.I.E.L.D calls them Inhumans. They are a half human half alien race bred on earth. Most of them look human, some don't, but they all have unique gifts." Matthew rolls his eyes.

"I don't know why you and Adam insist on calling them _gifts_ ," he grumbles. Serena grimaces sympathetically. She then started to pulls the needles out of his arm and it actually hurts this time, going in he couldn't feel a thing. Serena puts them all down on a white cloth, since all of the long needles have blood on them now. She picks up and antiseptic pad and goes to wipe away the small blood spots Matthew has on his arm, but they've already healed instantly so Serena sets it back down, noting how incredibly fast he heals.

"They are gifts. There's only a handful of people in this world that can do what you can do and yet nobody is right the same as you. Even if you don't realize it yet you are so, so special." Matthew looks down and doesn't say anything. Serena, after a moment, clears her throat and pushes a stray piece of dark hair behind her ear that had fallen out of the fancy updo she always seemed to twist her raven locks into. "So, I'm prescribing a weeks worth of iron supplements to be on the safe side for the recent blood loss within the short period of a month and as long as you don't pull another one of your hybrid stunts again so soon we should be good," Serena announces as she scribbles down the long string of words down onto her note sheet. She rips a serrated piece off of a different paper and hands it to Matthew. He takes it, slides off the bed and walks out passed Canary, who had been standing in the doorway for at least a minute now. "Something you needed?" Serena asks without even looking behind her.

"Um, no Miss," Canary says briefly before walking off. Canary watches Matthew walk out of the front room of the medical facility. If Serena of all people had mentioned him to be a _Hybrid_ , that had to be full proof, right?

* * *

Adam walked into the same old bar he'd started coming to since the day S.H.I.E.L.D shoved it's way back into his life. He sat down at the bar and saw the same bartender that was always here on weekday nights.

"Haven't seen you in awhile," Misty said as she put a napkin down and started to fill up a glass. He always asked for the same thing.

"What? Were you starting to get worried that I actually worked out my problems?" Misty snorted a short laugh and placed the glass down. "But you already know that I didn't."

"If you did why would you be here?" She said nearly mockingly, but Adam knows it's all in good fun and playful banter. The usual.

"That's not exactly what I meant," Adam says, picking up the glass and toying with it in his hands instead of actually drinking any of the contents. Misty raises an eyebrow. "Misty Warren, daughter of alleged mutant seer Irene Adler." Misty's expression turned, all the sudden, very serious and stern and even quite fearful. The color drained from her face and lips.

"What do you want?" She snarled, albeit still anxious. Adam held out one hand.

"Hey, hey, just chill. Takes one to know one," Adam says and he downs the contents of the shot glass, "but I bet you knew that as well."

"You're a meta-human?" Misty breathes and her tense stature seems to deflate and ease with the statement. Adam nods.

"Uh huh."

"But you're with S.H.I.E.L.D," Misty says skeptically. Adam raises both eyebrows and leans back in his chair, arms crossed. "I'm a seer, I don't know everything, just what happens to strike me."

"I'm not with those democratic bastards that the public knows as _S.W.O.R.D._ Sometimes called S.H.I.E.L.D, but _very_ different," Adam says with forced evenness to mask the harsh edge of his voice.

"How are they much better?" Misty challenges and it is a completely valid question. It was recorded that after the fall of Ultron about two decades ago that this other S.H.I.E.L.D had pretty much went dark to never been seen again, but now unheard of. However, they still didn't provide much assistance as opposed to what they used to accomplish.

"They're protecting meta-humans now, it's not like what I bet you or I used to know," Adam says, staring at and toying with his empty glass, wondering if it will be enough to just will it to refill. "However, I'm not really a loyal adversary to either S.H.I.E.L.D."

"Then you're more idiotic than I thought," Misty whispers quietly. Adam simply only shrugs. "What do you want from me?"

"A favor," Adam answers and Misty looks off put by the notion already "the kid you mentioned last time I was here, Matthew, well he's been hurt." Misty's eyes widened.

"Is he okay?" She asks anxiously. Adam nods.

"I think so. He recovers usually very quickly. The thing is though we don't know who attacked him, I was hoping you could give be an edge on all that."

"None of your S.H.I.E.L.D buddies can tell ya?" Misty inquires harshly, Adam sighs. He knows that most all meta-humans had some kind of qualms with S.H.I.E.L.D, hell he knew that better than anyone, so he shouldn't put it against her.

"Look, it's not like I'm recruiting you or asking you to join up, I'm offering you a deal, which you don't have to take."

"If it's a deal what do I get out of it then?" Misty asks, wondering if she's even any good at playing these dangerous games. Especially with a S.H.I.E.L.D agent.

"I'll be sure to keep you and your son off the index." Misty's eyes widened, this time a big as saucers.

"You can do that?"

"Yes," Adam affirms definitely "I know how bat shit crazy the world is now. I can keep you both off the index, but keep you both under protection."

"I don't want any S.H.I.E.L.D watchdogs breathing down our necks," Misty protests, thinking only of her young toddler son Samuel. Adam hums to interrupt her.

"No, 'course not. I know a few big names from the Mutant Academy, they'll keep an eye on things." Misty does nothing for a moment but stand there and lean on the dark bar top, head in her heads and dark auburn hair falling over her shoulders.

"Okay," she says as she takes Adam's napkin with one small wet ring on it from his glass. She scribbled something down upon it and hands it to him. "I'll call you when I have more information." Adam nods and holds it up.

"Does this mean we get a second date?" He jokes and Misty scowls.

"Not on your life."

* * *

Adeline sat, very distracted, out at the lounge she'd joined Jackson at. It was pretty quite right now. It was a teen hang out in the city. Rori had dragged Adeline here once before which is how she knew the place. Rori was convinced that she should bring all the girls here on karaoke night. Adeline could only imagine how that would go.

"Are you okay?" Jackson asks and Adeline looks over at him.

"Hm? Oh yeah I'm..." She trails off and Jackson flashes a crooked frown. "It's just. Something happened today and people got hurt from it."

"What happened?" Jackson asks, pushing his glasses back up. Adeline sighs and sits more compact in her seat.

"I, um, sent glass flying at all of my friends, well, not exactly my friends, but-" Adeline goes back to thinking about all the cruel things Alice had said earlier.

"I doubt that it was your fault," Jackson cuts it. Adeline smiles slightly. "Did one of them provoke you?" Adeline nods. "Then this isn't on you." Adeline laughs lightly and shakes her head.

"Wow, I am really turning this date into a downer; Good job, Adeline, way to go," she says while still airily laughing "I am such a freak."

"No you're not," Jackson says, stuttering a little nervously "you're special." Adeline looked up at him, her silver eyes trained on his light blue ones. He leaned towards her and kissed her and Adeline couldn't recall be more happy and royally confused in recent history.

* * *

"I see you're not grounded," Canary says almost timidly from the doorway to the training room.

"As of yet," Matthew answers shortly. He's not even down here training, he's mainly here just because it's quiet.

"So," Canary says while clicking her hands together and holding a tablet under her arm. She slowly saunters into the room towards Matthew. "Quite a show you put on, eh?"

"If you want to call it that," Matthew says quickly. Canary stops walking for a second, she sucks in a large breath. There's no way she was backing out now.

"It was pretty cool how you stood up to that bastard meta-human. Ya know.. with those crazy.. powers of yours." Canary knew she was loosing her nerve. "How did you do it?"

"None of your business," Matthew snapped defensively, albeit weakly. Canary breathed out heavily and walked in front of Matthew, from the wooden bench he was sitting at on. She looked down at him.

"Fair enough. Just tell me one thing," Canary starts, determined to voice her question "are you a hybrid?"


	19. Episode 10 (Complications Arise Pt 1)

_**Previously on "Dangerous Games"...**_

 _"A mission?" Adam questioned._

 _"Last night there were several 911 calls about an armed robbery, the only thing being that there was no weapons," Maria informed._

 _"No weapons?" Questioned Alice incredulously "how on earth could it have been an armed robbery with no rifles involved?"_

 _"Could it have been a meta-human?" Canary questioned openly as well. Maria nodded to Canary._

 _"So, you and Jackson, huh?" Canary said with a little wink to Adeline. Adeline blushed._

 _"It's strange," Alice says._

 _"Jealous?" Adeline says mockingly. Alice snorts._

 _"Hardly. I'm just curious as to why he suddenly has taken an interest in you," Alice says casually even though Adeline looks mildly hurt by the inquiring statement._

 _"And you're saying this because you know everything?" Adeline snaps at Alice._

 _"I'm saying this because I know people and when things don't add up that generally means that said person had ulterior motives. Something to gain maybe?"_

 _"Asgardian's are an alien race, but they treat themselves like gods up in their home world of Asgard. My father explained this to me at a young age."_

 _"Have you ever seen what it?"_

 _"No, I haven't seen it myself, but my dad used to describe it very vividly."_

 _"Used to?" Adeline asks then quickly tilts her head back down afraid that she's pressed something personal._

 _"It's okay," says Adam, catching her nervousness "he's on Asgard. He's fairly important and needed there. Asgard really hasn't made it passed the stage of monarchy yet." Adeline was struck again._

 _"Monarchy-and your dad?- Does that make you some kind of royalty or something up there?"_

 _"Yeah, something like that," he answers._

 _The concrete began to crack and shatter on the third floor of the parking garage above them and the second floor, which they were on. Matthew got shot back by the concrete seeming to collapse and blast to the right. It was like a spontaneous earth quake. Adam held out his hands and tried to use his own weather abilities to stop the strange vibration, but he wasn't having much luck. The agents that were on sight were quickly attempting to get the kids who were there out and evacuated, which proved to be more effective. Rubble rained down on them all, but a large chunk of concrete fell from above them as well, right over one of the kids._

 _"Matthew, look out!"_

 _"Misty Warren, daughter of alleged mutant seer Irene Adler." Misty's expression turned, all the sudden, very serious and stern and even quite fearful. The color drained from her face and lips._

 _"What do you want?" She snarled, albeit still anxious. Adam held out one hand._

 _"Hey, hey, just chill. Takes one to know one," Adam says and he downs the contents of the shot glass, "but I bet you knew that as well."_

 _"You're a meta-human?" Misty breathes._

 _"Wow, I am really turning this date into a downer; Good job, Adeline, way to go," she says while still airily laughing "I am such a freak."_

 _"No you're not," Jackson says, stuttering a little nervously "you're special." Adeline looked up at him, her silver eyes trained on his light blue ones. He leaned towards her and kissed her and Adeline couldn't recall be more happy and royally confused in recent history._

 _"Just tell me one thing," Canary starts, determined to voice her question "are you a hybrid?"_

* * *

"Those kids could have _died_ out there," Adam raged again, even though he was in council with Agent Hill and he generally didn't want to get on S.H.I.E.L.D's bad side, not matter which S.H.I.E.L.D it was.

"I know," said Maria firmly "that wasn't suppose to happen."

"It. What the hell was it anyways, because I know that I've been weak lately, but I also damn well know for sure that I have got a hell of a lot of power and whatever that was took me down." Maria held out her hand to an assistant that was offering her a glass tablet, probably to look over some sort of base or minor mission detail. She seemed to be intently focused on this conversation.

"I'm sorry, Agent Foster, but right not I really don't have much else to offer," Maria said evenly. Adam crossed his arms and leaned back in his chair, not incompletely like a child would. He pursed his lips.

"Why are you here, Agent Hill?"

"My active duty here is to look after the Avengers and that's all I have been doing for the past twenty years with the prior, now with you kids." Adam shook his head and pushed himself up from his chair. He grabbed his brown leather jacket off the back of it and started to walk out.

"Well you're doing a real bang up job of that," he snapped and with that he was gone. Maria's jaw set and she looked back at the assistant.

"Get Director Coulson on the line, I want to know exactly what that little act was about yesterday and I want to know why the hell he allowed me to set those kids up like that and I want to know right now," Maria hissed and the assistant spared no time scrambling about to carry out her orders.

_Dangerous Games_

"Are you ever going to talk to me about this?" Canary asked again. Matthew was annoyed to walk net to her.

"No," Matthew growled again. He walked through the school hallways, moving around other people to his locker. It didn't help that Canary's locker what right next to his. He got to it and by this time he was so annoyed with Canary's pestering that he tore his locker door open and the lock snapped apart. The broken metal and plastic clattered on the ground. Matthew sighed. Canary bent over, picked it up and looked at it.

"Huh," she muttered, examining it. Matthew rolled his eyes and pulled his books, virtual of course, and held them in his hands. "So you're strong. What else can you do?"

"I'm not talking about this!" Matthew yells loudly and draws attention to himself and Canary. Canary looks around nervously at the crowd of people who stare or look at them as they walk by or some who are just standing at their lockers. Canary sighs and looks down, but when she looks up she finds Matthew's eyes are green from his anger. Her eyes goes wide and she goes into panic mode. She slaps Matthew in the back of the head, not quite sure how that would help, but she does it. Matthew lets out a surprised ' _ow_ ', not so much a pained one and puts a hand to the back of his head.

"What the hell was that for?!" He snaps. Canary looks a little uneasy.

"You were," she lowers her voice and leans slightly closer "shifting in from of these people. Your eyes of veins start glowing in front of all these people, that's bad news, chief. I think me being all spontaneous like that left you more surprised than angry."

"Wonderful," Matthew muttered and he let out a long, exasperated sigh. He scuffs his sneakers against the linoleum floor and looks down only upon his virtual book pads.

"Do your powers always turn on when you're angry?" Canary asks.

"Or pained or stressed or scared," Matthew says tiredly and he leans against the lockers.

"Must be difficult to handle it all on your own. Hiding it from everyone," Canary says sympathetically. Matthew sighs and runs a hand through his dark, wavy hair.

"You have no idea," he mutters helplessly. Although Canary knowing about his big secret was less than ideal, it was nice to have someone who actually tried to understand it and be even a little empathetic about it. Any higher up agent who knew about him being a hybrid always seemed uneasy and people like Adam and Serena, albeit helpful, always just pushed him on control. Not that he saw that as something useless, but he just wanted to slow down and understand it himself first.

"I know me confronting you probably makes you pretty peeved at me, but if you even want to talk you know where to find me, yeah?" Matthew nods after a moment and Canary grabs her book pads and heads off.

* * *

Adam was sitting in on a lounge chair in his house at his S.H.I.E.L.D. He had been staying here more and more lately than he had his own home, although it was in Washington DC so it was several hours to fly, not that, with his powers, that he had to pay a penny to get there. He lounged back and stared up through the glass dome ceiling. He touches at the gold globe in his jacket and sighed. He was starting to develop a whole Golum complex from Lord of the Rings. All of the sudden Adam's cell phone vibrated on the glass topped table next to him. Adam reached his hand out from where he was laying and grabbed the phone. He swiped the screen to answer. "Hello?"

"Adam Foster?" Came the questioning response.

"Ms. Warren," Adam says, recognizing the voice immediately. He was expecting some kind of call from her soon anyways. "Nice to hear from you."

"Well just wait," was her answer and from a psychic that made Adam slightly nervous "it's- Sammy!" Misty called, covering over the speaker of the phone yet Adam could still hear "don't bang those, mommy's on the phone- Sorry."

"It's cool. So what did you find?"

"It's... not great," Misty sighs "As far as I could tell... S.H.I.E.L.D set that attack on themselves." Adam was struck completely, utterly silent. Set the attack on themselves.

"No way..." Adam says lightly, running a hand over his face, so incredibly exasperated and struck by all of this. "Oh man."

Adam hung up the call soon after that and headed strait to Maria's office. He went in with a small squeaked announcement from the assistant. Adam stopped short when he found that Matthew was in her office and she was talking to him quite sternly. Maria caught sight of Adam.

"Seriously?" Adam said, aimed at Matthew, already feeling angry and surprisingly betrayed from before. "Do you always have to cross the damn limits? Can't you ever get a hold of yourself?!"

"It's not-" Matthew starts but is cut off.

"For gods sakes. Just go, I'll deal with your shit later." Matthew looked really hurt and angry and he was about to retaliate. "Go!" Matthew gets up out of the chair and runs out of the room.

"What in the world is your problem?!" Maria yells to him and Maria generally didn't raise her voice and stayed diplomatic, but it was clear now that she was not happy with Adam's actions.

"You want to explain how S.H.I.E.L.D tried to kill of us, Hill!?" Maria Hill narrows her eyes and retaliates.

"Hey, I didn't know a thing about it either until this morning! I'm not the one who has to answer for this; as terrible as they were S.H.I.E.L.D had their reasons!"

"Then it must be pretty damn bad," Adam challenged.

"It is."


	20. Episode 10 (Complications Arise Pt 2)

"You couldn't have handled that much worse," Serena said forwardly to the young man with troubled sky blue eyes.

"Thank you, Miss Grey," Adam sighed from his seat inside Serena's office in HQ "that just puts everything in perspective," he mutters sarcastically. Serena straitens and rearranges her papers since Adam had messed with them _again_. Serena had brought Adam to her office after his fight with Maria Hill, although nothing came to blows and everything was resolved, it was still quite the situation. Adam had left Maria's office right after, very heated and angered. Serena was able to read all of this immediately and brought him here away from the kids. She knew what happened with Matthew. She was a mind reader after all.

"You took your hurt feelings out on a troubled child," Serena states obviously. She stacks the papers in her hands and taps them against her desk to even them out.

"S.H.I.E.L.D made a call that endangered many lives," Adam said, but Serena frowned as she didn't feel that that at all pleaded his case any more.

"Because of enemy espionage," Serena protests, not that this fact made up for the danger. Serena herself wasn't exactly a loyal member of S.H.I.E.L.D, she was a liaison at best between them and some of the mutant circles. She came in when she was needed. Serena was a specialist doctor especially for meta-humans and recently she'd received her masters in psychology.

"That's no excuse."

"Neither is degrading a kid," Serena snapped at him and that was something she didn't generally like to do. She was a kind woman. "You can't only to be mature when it suits you. You're in charge of the well-being of seven kids. This is far beyond yourself."

"You don't think I know that? I'm not perfect; the kid can be a jackass."

"He's just bored, I was the same way in high school." Adam rolled his eyes and sighed. "Here, look at this," Serena says as she rummages through a filing cabinet. She pulled a page out of a cream colored folder. "He's incredibly smart. His IQ is near genius level and that's with with added processing of his powers, but despite those enhancements it doesn't mean that this life gets any easier for anyone, but especially not a kid." Adam leaned forward and put his head in his hands.

"...I know. This life can be shit."

"What did Maria say the enemy espionage was about?"

* * *

"He never listens! He never does anything about the hybrid thing except get me to keep my mouth shut! I don't even know what it's suppose to mean!"

"Okay, okay," Canary says holding her hands out, but downwards. "Why don't we just calm down there, chief."

"It's just so stupid, sometimes I wish I never discovered my powers at all," Matthew sighed from the top half of his bed. Canary was leaning against the back board of the bed on the opposite side with her arms laying on her knees.

"If it's any consolation, I don't think that it was ever up to you. Your powers were always inside of you," Canary says. Matthew looks down at the dull sheets and comforter.

"I'm not sure that helps too much," Matthew mutters "means I was always a freak."

"None of you guys are freaks," Canary protests quickly "you guys are actually pretty freaking cool." Matthew shrugs evenly, but his expression remains skeptical. "I bet I can help you figure it out... but you don't look like you want to talk about this anymore." Matthew lets out a breath and it's enough for Canary to take it as truth. "Maybe you want something to take your mind off it." Matthew looks up at her.

"What is it?" Canary leans off the edge of the bed and pulls something out of her backpack, a glass tablet. She holds it out to him.

"Maria won't tell us what's going on. The attack. Rori's been stumped and I was wondering if you might give it a go," Canary suggests, chewing her lower lip. Matthew takes the tablet in his hands. He tilts it sideways and holds it up.

"If Aurora Stark can't pull it off what makes you think that I can?"

"You're smart, Matthew, really smart, you've got to give up this whole strange complex on trying to hide it, 'cause I know the truth." Matthew doesn't say anything. Not a word. He just stays motionless for a while and even his eyes stay stuck. Canary wonders if he was experiences some bad connection to a cold memory. Matthew suddenly shakes himself back into reality and taps the screen with his right hand while the tablet is still off.

"I'll look into it," he says as he sets it down. Canary nods silently. She takes her backpack off from the floor and heads for the door. She stops in the doorway and looks back at the raven haired boy, she then moves out back to her own room. Most likely to start on her homework. Matthew just lays in his bed for a while. About an hour or two. It was already late when he caved and decided to chat with Canary, it was roughly 10:40 pm. It was now well passed midnight and he couldn't sleep. He finally went down to the training room and took his tablet with him. He started doing pull ups out of habit. He swore that Adam instilled that terrible method in him; training when restless, although it did make you more tired, though tonight, even after many sets, it wasn't helping. Matthew sat down on one of the benches and sighed. He then, suddenly, flipped it over and part of the cast iron lodged into the wall. Matthew then stood still, breathing hard from the impulsive use of his powers. Matthew puts his head in his hands and while looking down he saw the glass tablet had made it when it since it had fallen off the bench. Matthew gingerly picked it up and looked at it. Only two small hairline cracks. Matthew sat down on the floor and decided to see what he could do. He was at if for hours and it was very, very early morning when he finally made some kind of accomplishment. Matthew found that another virus, working simultaneously against Matthew's own hack, was deep at work. Matthew oddly switched gears and tried to infiltrate the second virus. When he finally got it to open, he froze solid, in sheer fear.

"Oh god." The symbol that came up in buried and shaped in the code was a _Hydra_.

Matthew grabbed his hoodie and held the tablet tight and he raced to Maria Hill's office. He made it to HQ, since the building was in view of his house at S.H.I.E.L.D, in little to no time at all. He fumbled with his I.D card to get the door open. He ran inside and found staff was a lot shorter today. He made his way up to the front two rooms. Maria had a whole sectioned off area dedicated to her office and all of her assistants and personal agents who worked in the room outside of it. Matthew walked into said room and found only Jackson inside. Jackson caught Matthew's frantic pace and anxious look. Jackson looked quizzically at the young teenager. "You're here very early," he stated obviously "is something wrong?- Oh no." Matthew had flipped the tablet around to show the still glowing Hydra insignia. Jackson had stumbled away from where he was filing things in his cabinet. He had just pulled something out of it and it stayed in his hands.

"Hydra has a virus inside S.H.I.E.L.D, I need to see Agent Hill ASAP." Whether you were a lasting part of S.H.I.E.L.D or not it was practically common knowledge in this day and age to know that Hydra was bad news. The terrorist cult had been terrorizing the world in some for or another since the 1930's and after their near destruction of the world back in 2014, Matthew shuttered to think what they might be conspiring to do with all the tech and advancements now in 2034.

"This is bad," Jackson stated, again, obviously and nervously "this is very bad."

"Of course it is!" Matthew shouted. He tapped something else on the tablet.

"I know," said Jackson in a tone that didn't sound nearly as panicked as before. Matthew was still trying to move passed their virus, but it was far, far beyond his level and he didn't seem to be having any luck thus far. Matthew scowled, his back turned to Jackson since he didn't want him to freak out of the green shimmering in his eyes. "I mean, you weren't suppose to find out yet." Matthew stiffened and didn't move for a second. He swore his mind was playing tricks on him. Jackson?

Matthew turned around by once again was rendered still. Jackson was holding something that looked like a pen in his hands, but it was emitting some kind of sound that seemed to paralyze you. Jackson had mechanical hearing aids in his ears that could either amplify or drown out all noise around you. Must be why he wasn't effected. Matthew dropped the tablet and it clattered onto the floor. Jackson lowered Matthew to the floor. "Sorry, man, but you really shouldn't have jumped the gun like that," Jackson said and he really did sound almost sympathetic. Almost. Matthew tried to speak or move or just do something but he was completely useless. "Don't worry, it won't kill you, just made to shut you down short term; these however," Jackson placed a small, blue disc onto Matthew's wrist, which held a certain electrical charge that radiated throughout the entire upper left part of his body "are made to hold you long term." Jackson pulled Matthew's motionless form into a hiding spot that he'd discovered which was actually an evacuation tunnel. He put Matthew inside there with five electric charges on his body. One on each arm and leg on one on the back of his neck which would render him unconscious and keep him that way. Jackson put the false backing back on the large cabinet that Maria kept right outside her office and shut the metal cabinet doors. "Hail Hydra," he sighed quietly.


	21. Episode 11 (Minor Crisis Pt 1)

**Previously on "Dangerous Games"...**

 _"Get Director Coulson on the line, I want to know exactly what that little act was about yesterday and I want to know why the hell he allowed me to set those kids up like that and I want to know right now," Maria hissed and the assistant spared no time scrambling about to carry out her orders._

 _"Do your powers always turn on when you're angry?" Canary asks._

 _"Or pained or stressed or scared," Matthew says tiredly and he leans against the lockers._

 _"Must be difficult to handle it all on your own. Hiding it from everyone," Canary says sympathetically "I know me confronting you probably makes you pretty peeved at me, but if you even want to talk you know where to find me, yeah?"_

 _"Maria won't tell us what's going on. The attack. Rori's been stumped and I was wondering if you might give it a go," Canary suggests, chewing her lower lip. Matthew takes the tablet in his hands. He tilts it sideways and holds it up._

 _"If Aurora Stark can't pull it off what makes you think that I can?"_

 _"You're smart, Matthew, really smart, you've got to give up this whole strange complex on trying to hide it, 'cause I know the truth."_

 _"I'll look into it," he says as he sets it down._

 _"Oh god." The symbol that came up in buried and shaped in the code was a Hydra. "Hydra has a virus inside S.H.I.E.L.D, I need to see Agent Hill ASAP."_

 _"This is bad," Jackson stated, again, obviously and nervously "this is very bad."_

 _"Of course it is!" Matthew shouted. He tapped something else on the tablet._

 _"I know," said Jackson in a tone that didn't sound nearly as panicked as before. "I mean, you weren't suppose to find out yet."_

 _Jackson put the false backing back on the large cabinet that Maria kept right outside her office and shut the metal cabinet doors, leaving Matthew trapped in the hatch behind. "Hail Hydra," he sighed quietly._

* * *

"I can't do it, Adam, I'm sorry," Rori sighed again. Adam shrugged.

"Again, it's okay," Adam says. Rori had recently been experimenting with her powers. She believed if she could radiate enough heat inside herself she could project it. So far she wasn't having much luck and was only proving to frustrate herself. "I'm not even going to tell you how long it took me to project lightning." Adam himself was a lot more mellow today. There was something about the telepathic doctor, besides the use of her powers, that put him at ease and lasted even hours after he had left.

"Well, at least JP isn't having anymore luck than me with his kinetic light show junk," Rori muttered and Adam snickered. JP was also present in the training room that Saturday morning, well, along with Jackson who was taking notes on their progress.

"What was the first thing you discovered with your powers?" Adam asks them "what made it all click for the first time?"

"Well, I set my bed sheets on fire when I was a kid," Rori said oddly, it was a weird memory to recall and even weirder to share, not that she really even had before. "My older brother had tempted me into watching an old horror movie called The Ring and I was only seven and it freaked me the hell out." Adam nodded and looked to JP, JP only scuffed his shoes on the ground.

"It's pretty strange," JP says and Adam knew that JP usually just gabbed about whatever without hesitation, even if it was something that you never ever wanted or needed to here in your life, but now he was being hesitant. Adam gestured for him to continue. "My Mom was using her own powers. They're just like Adeline's. She was using them on some man who had stolen things from our home at the time and she was hurting him, like, really bad. I was a kid so I begged her to stop since I didn't get it at the time. I grabbed her leg and she gasped and all of the sudden I had the same red lights around my own hands and I brought down a street lamp on the guy. She was pretty shocked..." No one said a word after that. Even Jackson had stopped writing.

Adam then looked back at the two kids. "I want you to remember those emotions of pain or fear. Those are the tools you use to channel your powers before you've gained control. Use whatever emotion is strongest to trigger it." Rori got right back to work as JP went to go sit down on one of the benches. Adam goes to sit down next to him. "Manipulation of kinetic fields," Adam says as he looks to JP "do you know what that means?"

"Not really. Too many fancy words," JP jokes lightly. Adam rolls his eyes and grins.

"Kinetic energy is the main building block for all types of energy based powers. Even mine," Adam explains. He holds out his hand, palm facing outwards. "You can control those unique signatures and even take them. Lets put it to the test." JP stares at Adam's hand expectantly. Adam twists his wrist so that his palm is now facing upwards. An large energy ball charges in Adam's hand. It looks almost like an atom by the shape and rivets accompanying it. JP's eyes light up. "Go ahead," Adam coaxes lightly. JP holds his hand out above the energy ball and his hand illuminates silver and the blue sparks and essence from the energy ball are absorbed. Adam's jaw sets and tightens since it wasn't exactly a pleasant sensation for him.

"It feels weird. Like ants are crawling all over my hand." JP looks at his hand that's lightly glowing blue. JP straitens it out and the Adam's energy ball fires from his hand and nearly hits Canary who had just walked it.

"Whoa! Damn dude!" She cusses loudly, looking over at JP. JP shrugs nervously but he's still smiling. "Does anyone know where Matthew is?"

"Actually, now that you mention it I haven't seen him at all today and he usually spends all morning brooding in the living room," Rori says with a giggles. JP also snickers.

"Nah, haven't seen him either," says JP after he's done. Canary looks at Adam and he only looks guilty and doesn't comment. Canary's eye widen in mild anger and disappointment. She wonders if they'd had another fight after the fact. Canary looks to the last participant in the room.

"Jackson?"

"Sorry, I got in late today, haven't seen him," Jackson says while scribbling something down on his notepad and pausing only to push his glasses back into place. Canary sighs. Jackson begins to walk away, head still titled downwards and gaze lost in examining his notes. He stumbled on the side of a pole that had fallen from where it was anchored for pull ups. JP snickered at his clumsiness. Jackson turned a little red and went on. Canary turns around and notice that he dropped something. She picks up what looks like a pen and looks down to examine it for the lack of anything better to do. Stark Industries logo? She looks up and see's a whole bench embedded in the wall. The strong, thick, concrete wall and she began to doubt that nobody had seen Matthew at all the night before. Canary pockets the pen and goes off, her mind still set.

_Dangerous Games_

"We've lost communications to the base in Boston," the agent informed. Maria growled annoyed.

"Do we have communication signals?!" Maria snaps loudly all of the agents in the main control room look around and at each other.

"No, Ma'am," squeaks the same assistant. Maria massages her temples.

"Redirect our efforts into getting a message to S.H.I.E.L.D HQ to Director Phillip Coulson."

"Yes, Ma'am," says the assistant as she goes to pass out the orders to all of the tech agents they have working on this problem. Maria stands in the center of the large room between the four main control panels. She taps and scrolls several files and everything seems to be running unbearably slow. Light footsteps walk up to Maria and she turns, her hand held out expectantly. "Jackson, those files- Miss Morse."

"Um, yeah," Canary says looking at the chaos. All those agents scrambling around like a crazy freaking ant farm. "I need to talk to you about something." Maria looks over the girl who had never bothered her for anything.

"I'm sorry, but there's really pressing matters here that need my immediate attention-"

"Then I'll make this quick," Canary says, cutting the agent off. She hold up the non-pen and shows it to Maria. Maria looks at it quizzically.

"A paralytic weapon?" She says curiously as she takes it from the teenagers hand and looks it over.

"Matthew went missing last night and no ones seen him and I found this," Canary says turning out her broken glass S.H.I.E.L.D tablet "I gave this to Matthew last night. I found it outside your office under one of the agents desks." Maria took the tablet, looked it over then handed it to one of the tech agents. "I found the tablet in your assistants paralytic weapon on one of the interns. I think this could be related," Canary admits nervously.

"Pull whatever you can off of this," Maria says to the agent. The agent hook the tablet up to one of the computers it the room. He starts typing on the touch screen and trying to pull off any data he can get his hands on. Finally a symbol comes up in the screen made out of pieces of green code. They all freeze. The tech agent looks back at Maria.

"Miss Hill?" Maria's jaw tightens and she stares at the screen.

"Hydra," she practically growls. She smacks her hand down on the desk and moves away, Canary follows her.

"Agent Hill, what's going on?" Maria Hill goes back to the center of the control room and starts to get to work, giving orders to everyone to remove the virus ASAP.

"Two days ago I made a call to the director of S.H.I.E.L.D, Phil Coulson. The attack you kids got caught in was a S.H.I.E.L.D set up to disrupt a Hydra intel drop off. S.H.I.E.L.D HQ had a feeling someone from Hydra found their way into S.H.I.E.L.D and was distributing information. He ordered an enhanced to wipe all traces of the information and to shut the whole operation down."

"Oh my god," Canary says numbly and her breath gets caught in her throat "I-I asked Matthew to look into the files on the event. He must have found the Hydra virus instead and- this is all my fault." Canary sank to the ground and sat down on the floor. Maria got exactly what Canary was implying.

"Who did you find the paralytic weapon on?" Maria asks, already sending agents to search security feed on any trace of the boy before he went missing.

"Jackson."

* * *

"Thanks for inviting me out. With Matthew in trouble again I bet Maria won't be so much fun today," Adeline says to Jackson. Jackson smiles and puts his glasses back on after cleaning them off on his grey button down shirt.

"It's no problem. Plus, I, well, really wanted to see you after the other night. It was fun." Adeline smiled. She felt her phone vibrate in her pocket and it vibrated again and again.

"Do you need to take that?" Jackson asked.

"No, it's probably nothing," Adeline says waving it all off. "So I heard that Matthew went all MIA this morning."

"Oh," said Jackson timidly and Adeline sensed he was holding something back. Adeline turned curious.

"What is it?" She asked. Jackson turned away from her.

"I shouldn't say. I mean you guys were all starting to become friends and all it's not-" he coughs and fumbles with his glasses to cut himself off.

"Jackson?" Adeline presses again and Jackson sighs sadly.

"Miss Hill told me that he quit," Jackson forces out and Adeline gasps surprisingly.

"Really? I didn't think- I mean after he practically saved me from Ms. Allure..." she trailed off. Jackson put his hands up.

"I know. It surprised me to I thought he was finally starting to like it back at base." Adeline sighs. Her phone vibrates again and this time she moves to take the call, but Jackson holds her hand then presses her up against the side wall on one of the building that they were passing on their walk back to base. Adeline is very stunned by his behavior and she doesn't like to be handled by men in this manner.

"It's probably nothing, remember?" He whispers and he kisses Adeline. Despite herself and her insecurities Adeline kisses him back. Jackson moves his hands behind her in which Adeline thinks is sexual. Jackson subtly slips her phone card out of her back pocket and pockets it for himself.

* * *

"Somebody looks happy," Alice mused as she saw Adeline walk into the house. Alice was lounging on one of the couches in the living room reading a book. She hardly even glanced up from it to make her accusation.

"As a matter of fact I am," Adeline says spitefully and Alice snorts a short bout of laughter. Adeline growls at Alice's antics and Alice's glass of pink lemonade on the coffee table shatters with a haze of silver light. Alice glances at it, frowning over the loss of the delicious beverage.

"Watch it there, cupcake, or else I'll start to think that you actually don't like me," Alice teases in a tone that is all the more irritable to Adeline.

"I don't like you, at all. You're manipulative and callous and irritably prepossessing-"

"Oh, so you think I'm charming?" Alice taunts as she sets down her book. Adeline's jaw tightens.

"-Like a viper right before it poisons you."

"So you find me charming and deadly. Careful honey or else you might just have to take me out to dinner and however would poor, poor Jackson take the news?"

"You're absurd," Adeline scoffs and she crosses her arms, resisting the urge to stamp her foot on the ground like and immature child. Alice laughs.

"You make it so easy, Adeline, so easy," Alice taunts again.

"I really wish Adam or Matthew were here to shut you up," Adeline huffs as she takes her jacket off and hangs it up.

"Need them to fight your battles for you, cupcake?" Alice says with a shallow bout of laughter.

"No, but Matthew's tongue was way sharper than mine. He could put you in your place," Adeline states surely and she takes off her shoes.

"Past-tense?" Alice says as she crosses her legs and snuggles in more to the plush gold couch. "Did you two have a spat?"

"Excuse me?"

"Come on, everyone knows that you have a thing for him after he and Adam bailed you out with Ms. Allure. It's practically common knowledge." Adeline shudders and shakes her head. Yes he was cute- scratch that, he was hot, but he was also hot-headed which didn't bode well in Adeline's past experiences.

"No," Adeline snaps and she starts to walk to her room "he left."

"What?" Alice says very surprised and shattering her whole game and turning serious. "He..left?"

"Jackson said so," Adeline says with a small, sad shrug. "He's gone." Alice didn't fully know why, but she felt saddened to hear that he'd gone. She hardly knew him, wasn't even close to him in any way, but it still struck her down, but also struck her as odd. Would S.H.I.E.L.D and Maria Hill just let him leave? Just let him go like that? Certainly not. Alice had found Canary earlier rummaging through Matthew's room and Alice had asked curiously what she was doing. It was odd that Adeline said he had just left and without bringing any of his belongings. Also, how would Adam not have said a word? Why had anyone not said a word?

"No he isn't."

* * *

"Status?" Maria asks sternly.

"A party of agents is heading out now to apprehend Jackson Roain for questioning."

"I still don't know if Jackson is involved," Canary says, even though there is mild evidence against him it didn't make him an traitor.

"It's better to test him and have him turn out clean that to leave a potential Hydra adversary out there in a position where's it's just far too easy to steal intel," Maria says to the young girl. "Now, I want this whole facility placed on lock-down. Until we can get word through to Director Coulson, I want-" **BOOM!** Bombs were blown through out the compound.


	22. Episode 11 (Minor Crisis Pt 2)

**BOOM!** The various blasts together shook the entire compound. Agents were thrown all over the control room. Everyone was thrown down. Operative agents wearing dark green suits and masks walked into the room holding semi-automatics. Maria Hill had absolutely no idea how they had managed to infiltrate this place that quickly. It didn't seem humanly possibly yet Hydra agents had just waltzed in the front door. Maria grabbed tight at the pistol in her holster. She stood up, fired once and managed to shoot one fatality before crouching back down and moving Canary and herself to better cover. "Stay down!" Maria instructed. Other S.H.I.E.L.D agents were beginning to come to and firing at the Hydra agents. Every time another agent would take a shot so would Maria simultaneously fire and take the one that was distracted down. Hydra agents were started to crowd the place. Canary could only peek over to the right since there were a few firing at Maria right now, but after a few more S.H.I.E.L.D agents came to they became distracted. Maria moved Canary to a form of cover near the left exit and Hydra agents began firing at them. "When you see an opening go! Run behind us!" Maria ordered, handing the teenage girl a pistol.

"What?!" Canary yelled. Sure, she'd been enrolled in military school all through high school, but that was all training. This shit was real life and real danger!

"Go!" Maria shouted all of the sudden and Canary, despite her anxiety, bolted back and ran down the hallway and moving around the corner, which led to the room outside Maria's office and her assistants office. Canary looked down the hall way of this room which led into the main hallways that the Hydra agents had come in. It was possible that she was trapped. Canary moved back and pressed herself against the wall when she heard more heavy boots cladding against the floor and moving towards the control room, but Canary heard one set of footsteps leading into this office room. Canary held her breath, staying pressed against the wall. From the small amount she could see the person was wearing the dark green Hydra apparel. The person continued to walk forward and passed Canary, but apparently didn't look to the side. He was about to open the door to Maria's assistants office room when Canary clicked off the safety on her gun and held it to the back of the persons head. He held his hands up and turned around.

"Jackson?!" Canary gasps. Yes, she had her suspicions, but there was something about a familiar face you thought of as kind to be now categorized as traitorous and dangerous.

"Well this is awkward," he states and too Canary it's just so weird to hear him speak confidently with out stuttering or slouching in on himself or even speaking louder than a general whisper. His glasses were lacking and that made his face look wider that visually preferable and his eyes looked smaller than normal which was odd.

"You were a mole for Hydra?" Canary inquires partially, still holding him at gunpoint.

"No! I swear I'm not! I had to dress like this to get passed them! I think they know I'm S.H.I.E.L.D and they're after me!" Canary still keeps her finger on the trigger, but it does loosen marginally, Jackson smirks. "Pretty convincing, right? What? Expecting the s-stut-tering sweet talker were we?

"Where's Matthew?"

"Oh-ho, you are perceptive. Shocker," Jackson says. Canary pushes the gun closer and Jackson puts his hands back up.

"What did you do with him?"

"The question is what did I do _to_ him."

"What are you implying?" Canary snaps through her teeth. Jackson looks at the barrel of the gun which was pointed squarely at his chest.

"He's dead." Canary freezes. So stunned. Dead? No... no that couldn't be right. Jackson takes this opportunity to hit the gun out of Canary's hands. He kicks her in the gut and she's his back against the wall. She coughs from the wind being knocked out of her. Jackson puts his hands around her neck and squeezes it, pinning her against the wall. "You think you know someone, right? Truth is you never know who we are. 2014 wasn't the end it was the beginning. A chance to start over. We could be anyone in or outside of S.H.I.E.L.D and you'd never even know." Jackson squeezes tighter. "Hail Hydr-AH!" Canary manages to kick her leg upwards between his legs. Canary drops and coughs and sputters for air. Jackson reels back and grits his teeth in pain. "If this is permanent I'm going to be pissed!" He grounds out through hit grit teeth. He moves forward again, but this time Canary is ready to defend herself. However, Jackson's skill level is above Canary's own. Jackson's attacks are well-aimed and very offensive. Canary just couldn't keep up. Jackson got a good punch in on her shoulder and as she reeled back, a good kick in on her left leg which sent her sprawling. Canary reached from the gun but Jackson stamped his heavy boot clad foot down on her hand. Canary cried out and Jackson picked up the gun. He aims it at Canary. "And my secret dies with you- OOH!" Jackson is seriously wondering what is with these chicks as Alice runs in and hits him in the side of the head with her elbow. Jackson stumbles back. Alice kicks the gun out of his hand and then goes to kick his chest. Jackson grabs her leg and pulls it upwards, but Alice does something very unexpected and wraps both her legs around Jackson's neck and pulls him down to the ground. Jackson tries to pull her legs off, but Alice hold them there and punches Jackson in the head.

K.O.

Alice gets up back on her feet and walks away from the unconscious Hydra snitch. Alice holds a hand out to Canary and she takes it gratefully. "Where the hell did you learn that?" Canary asks first out of all of the jumbled questions running through her mind.

"My mother," Alice states simply. "That's not important now."

"How did you find me?" Canary asks, still very shaken. She did almost die after all.

"I wasn't looking for you," Alice admits and she holds up Rori's StarkPhone, which she allegedly stole from her. For a good cause, this time. "Did you know S.H.I.E.L.D was tracking all of our I.D cards?" Canary looks astonished.

"They were?...but if they were that means-"

"If he had it on him," Alice interrupts. She looks back down at the plexiglass phone "and I think he just might've. Come on, honey, let's go to the big boss' room." Alice and Canary step into Maria's office. They look all around the space. Alice stares back down at the phone.

"That can't be right," says Canary looking at the south wall "it says that someones right here. You don't have your own I.D card on you, right?"

"Don't be absurd, I have a place for mine I put it whenever I don't specifically need it for something. I don't want S.H.I.E.L.D playing big brother with my social life." Canary sighs, but as she tilts her head down she then see's something. She quickly moves forwards and open the cabinet doors. She points to the top right corner.

"Look! The backing is damaged but it's black beyond it, not light blue like the walls," Canary exclaims. Alice hands Canary the phone for light and kicks the false backing out, since Canary's dominant leg was hurt in the fight. The false backing clattered back and echoed. "A tunnel?"

"Oh my lord," Alice breathes as Canary holds the light out further "Matthew?" Alice reaches her hands down to touch him but she gets shocked and she reels back.

"What are those?" Canary asks as she see's the discs on his arms and legs. Alice shakes her head.

"I don't know." Soon they hear people's voices and fast approaching footsteps from the other room. Canary quickly closes the cabinet doors in fear that the possibly Hydra agents will find them and Alice shoves the false backing back into place and they hide in the tunnel. "We've got to get out of here," Alice whispers as she hears the doors to Maria's office open and people walk inside and from they things they were saying they were in fact Hydra.

"We can't just leave him here," Canary utters back and gestures to Matthew in the darkness.

"I know," Alice whispers quietly. She takes off her jacket and grabs him with that over her hands so that she herself won't get shocked. Canary does the same and they manage to haul him through the tunnel. Alice catches in the dim light that there's one of those things in the back of Matthew's neck and that it's sparking, like an electrical charge. Alice makes a mental note to tell Canary of this right after she yanks the charge out of Matthew's neck. Matthew jolts as Alice drops the bloodied charge on the floor. "Part embedded," Alice grimaces as he presses the sleeve of her coat the the back of the boys neck. At least now he might start to regain consciousness. Hopefully that was a good thing.

* * *

"Ow, shit," James cursed and then he cursed himself for biting his tongue upon swearing. His Dad had far too much influence on cussing and, well, pretty much everything else in his life.

"James?" Muttered a hopeful voice. James looked over to the left. It was dark and dusty from the recent fall of debris. His eyes soon adjusted though and he could see then.

"Adeline," James stated obviously, then decided he should probably add more words than that "yeah, it's me. You have any idea what the hell this is all about?"

"None, I- ow!" James tensed and moved closer.

"What's wrong?"

"I'm- I'm stuck," Adeline whimpered and as James moved closer and closer he could see that she had two beams around her waist and one piece of rebar down on her ankle. From the way things feel around her it was a wonder that she wasn't dead.

James had found Adeline on the way to the main HQ or offices of the base. Adeline noticed that Jackson had forgotten his jacket, which he'd given to her since it was cold as they were walking back, and his glasses were inside the right pocket. She thought it best to return those to him so that he wouldn't have to be caught up on his work. James had gotten a text from Canary to bring her something from the R&D lab that was suppose to trace the I.D cards or something. He had no idea why she needed it, but he didn't ask question. She had, in text, asked him to drop it off and the HQ control room since she was headed that way then. James and Adeline bumped into each other and were walking together when the bombs went off. "It's okay, I'm going to get you out of there. Hang tight." James had to be very careful in trying to move the debris off and away from her. When he went to move the piece of rebar off of her ankle when he noticed that as soon as he did another piece would fall and another piece after that, it was like a huge domino effect and Adeline would most certainly get the bad brunt of it. Adeline heard the creaking of the metal and she got scared. She started breathing heavy and now was unable to keep still. "Hey, hey! It's okay, um." James looked around and found pleasantly that the way behind was clear from debris and it was a long hallway that bent and went off in different tangents. That meant that they had no chance of being trapped. James looked up at the stacked debris. "Okay, I'm going to move this piece on your ankle, then you're going to use your power to push us all the way back to that far wall back there." James pointed even though there was no way Adeline could see.

"I don't know if I can," Adeline stuttered hoarsely. She was shaking and James could clearly tell.

"Yeah, you'll be fine," James reassures and he really hopes that she can otherwise they'll both be crushed under pounds of debris from that had fallen and crumbled from the floors beneath them.

"I can't, I-I'm gonna get us bother killed- I can't control it- it- I-" Adeline cries helplessly.

"Remember what Adam says?" James tries. He can hear, with his extra sensory powers due to his super soldier nature, that if they wait too long that debris gonna start collapsing over head anyways. "Our powers, abilities are a simple extension of us. Like a, um, like any other skill you can learn." James felt dust and rubble fall on his head and shoulders. Time was running short. "Ready?" Adeline was still shaky and honestly so was James, but he knew from both of his parents that you did what you had to do. In whatever situation and it was time to apply that. James lifted the bar up and things started to fall. Fast. But it was okay; he and Adeline were thrown back in a blast of brilliant silver light. They both thudded against the wall far back behind them and debris crashed down in from of the maybe three seconds later. James just sat there for a minute, recomposing himself after all that. Adeline moaned and sat up next to him. "That was...fun?"

"No," Adeline chimed quickly and displeasingly. She cursed subtly under her breath and looked down at her ankle. It was all black and blue and swollen already.

"Come on, I'll help you," says James as he pulls her up and helps to take some of her weight. "We'll figure all of this bul- bullshit out-" and it was so very clear that they'd get they're explanation when the building speakers, that were still operational, came on harboring an unfamiliar voice.

"S.H.I.E.L.D base 42 has been compromised," said a low, male voice " you all know that by now. We are called HYDRA and the only reason I say this is because of a select few young gifted members. I have no doubt that all of you are in fact still alive, with all of your extraordinary gifts, but with S.H.I.E.L.D being so naive as to restrict you to use them, I can assume that you will be injured and scared. What you've accomplished so far, what you've done so far has been nothing but child's play. This is the real world and it's high time you've woken up and realized that you've only got two options here. First, you leave here with me. Join HYDRA and you can find out what you're really capable of, no one to limit you, hold you back or tell you to stop, no one to restrict your truest potential. Or, option two, you all leave here in body bags. I'm a reasonable man, but not very patient. This is reality children. Time to choose a side."

James got Adeline to the small medical facility that was inside the main building. Nobody was there and he was grateful for that. He needed to wrap and set Adeline's ankle, something James luckily knew how to do from his Dad's many, many, many injuries from his work out in the field. The lights were low and flickering, but that was still better than previously, no light at all. James sat Adeline up on one of the beds and then silently moved around the room to try and find bandages so that he could wrap it tight and she could walk. James pulled open a drawer and rummaged through it, then another. He found the bandages then heard something click right behind the back of his head. James slowly, barely turned his head and he could see from his peripheral vision that a young red head was holding a gun to his head. "Goddammit, Alice, what is it with you girls trying to impale me?" The gun dropped.

"Sorry," she said really non-apologetically "but with Hydra putting out death threats I'm not going to take any chances."

"Fair enough," James muttered and he grabbed the bandages tightly in hand. "Is it just you who made it here?"

"No," Alice sighs and James catches something in it. A mix of exasperation and mild sorrow.

"Who came with you? Are they okay?"

"Define _okay_ ," Alice says as she drags James back to the separated part of the medical bay, where all of the kids spent most of his recovery time, and now he was there again. James gasped a sharp intake of breath. Matthew was laying on the bed, looking pale, his skin was pure white with hints of grey, his veins were darkened, under his eyes were dark and even his lips had drained of color and were bloody and chapped.

"Jesus," James muttered lowly, still taking in the horrid sights. "Is he... Dead?" James practically choked on that last word.

"Somehow no," Canary said and she was still by her friend. It was seriously a wonder that he was still hanging on somehow. She wasn't sure how powerful hybrids really were, but now she had a pretty good idea. "Either he's stronger than we all thought or these devises weren't meant to kill, I don't know either way."

"Shouldn't we try to remove those?" James asks as he steps forwards and examines the weird discs in his arms and legs. James moves to touch one and he's shocked, literally by the electrical currents. "These are electrically charged," James notes to himself.

"We thought so too, but," Alice starts distastefully as she turns Matthew's left leg towards James so he can see. "These discs expand once they are activated. We try to pull it out wrong and we could rip open an artery." Canary had found that as soon as Alice suggested the fact of removal when they had arrived here with the unconscious teenager roughly twenty minutes ago. Canary was taught in her old school, a military academy, extreme points of human mortality. Basically places of major arteries or vital organs where, if punctured, would be fatal. Thank god that Canary was able to deter this before Alice went down the gruesome route of tearing the discs out of his flesh.

"Shit," James swore again and this was probably the most he's sworn in a long while.

"It gets worse," Alice said grimacing "the longer he's out like this the more of a chance there is of him sustaining permanent psychical damage. We're talking muscle damage, tissue damage, sensory damage, nerve damage, brain damage even, or so Canary claims." James looked at Canary, she was still standing by Matthew where he laid in bed. Canary had her hand laying on Matthew's forearm and she was concerned about how hot his temperature was. James wondered briefly if there was something going on between those two.

"So if we don't remove them soon he'll be killed and if we remove them now then he'll die."

"Pretty much," Alice sighs to James statement.

"So basically we're just going to let him die?!" James exclaims. Alice seems very calm about all of this and it only serves to piss James off more. A friend of theirs was dying. Even if Matthew wasn't really a friend or even close to the rest of them, there was a certain connection between other meta-humans, namely children in particular. He was caught up in this mess just as much as the rest of them and James wasn't about to let anyone die if he could at all help it.

"I hate it too," Alice snaps "but what options do we really have here?!"

"Adam," says Adeline from her spot leaning against the wall where she'd limped over to the rest of them "he can manipulate electrical forces, he could turn off and re-compact the devises."

"A safe way of removal," Canary affirms to the rest of them, which they might have all know, but she put it out there anyways.

"But no safe way to call him," Alice says outright and Adeline glares at here. Alice looks right back, her eyes unmoving. "In case you haven't noticed, cupcake, Hydra is shacked up in the main control room which monitors all of our devises."

"Then we'll use the I.D cards. Those have a homing function to other members of us," Adeline suggests but Alice on rolls her eyes.

"Those run off the same frequency as our cell phones. S.H.I.E.L.D morons."

"If I didn't know better, and I don't really, I'd say it sounds like you don't care if he dies," James snaps lowly and dangerously, a tone of voice that usually isn't found with him. Alice turns to James and looks him dead in the eyes.

"You think I'm Hydra? You really think that I want him dead?"

"I don't know what I think," James shoots back "and I didn't say that you were Hydra necessarily. Maybe Jackson was right to be suspicious of you-"

"Jackson is Hydra," Canary states evenly. Well as even as she can, there's a light hint of fear in her voice, possibly trauma. James seems skeptical, but even more so stunned.

"W-what?" Adeline stutters.

"He tried to kill me," Canary says lowly. She swallows hard before continuing. "He was going to shoot me.. Alice stopped him last second." Adeline's mouth was a gape. She simply couldn't believe that Jackson- of all people- that he could be one of their enemies. "I trust Alice now and I've never given any of you a single reason not to trust me." James looks at Alice and simply nods. Adeline is still unmoving. Too astonished.

"Jackson is- No, there has to be some kind of mistake. Some kind of misunderstanding?"

"There isn't," Canary says, moving away from the bed and closer into the circle where the other kids were. "He told me what he was doing. Right before he attacked me. Hydra, they were using him, playing all of us so that Hydra could know more about us."

"But he told me-"

"That he liked you? Loved you?" Alice cut in to Adeline's sorrowful statement. "Did he make it feel like nothing was ever your fault? Tell you that you were special and gifted and unlike any other girls he's met? Did he, no matter what, never find a problem in anything that you did? That's all signs of romantic brainwashing, honey."

"So fine! Go ahead!" Adeline cries. "Tell me I'm an idiot, that I let myself get played and that he only cared about me to gain something! Go fucking right ahead!" Many of them were brought to silence by Adeline's out-burst. It was so unlike her, yet not totally unexpected if you stopped to think about it.

"No," Alice says lowly, in a gentle tone never before used when she addressed Adeline "not today." Silence ensued again.

"So if we use the I.D cards, anyone with a link to our cell phones could connect us to this general vicinity," James says and Alice nods after a moment.

"That's correct," Alice affirms "Adam's fast, but there's no guarantee that he could make it here before Hydra adversaries could."

"Do we have any other options?" Canary asks as she looks back Matthew laying motionless on the bed.

"No," Alice says after another moment. James pulls out his I.D card and opens a small, paper thin slot in the back and presses the button behind it. They all know what they've done. Either Hydra or Adam was going to be on their doorstep any moment now and so far things are going horribly. Matthew is possibly dying, Adeline's crying and they could be stormed any minute and shot to death.

"Well, first things first," Canary says after a long moments time "we need to wrap Adeline's ankle up and we need to figure out an I.V or something for fluids for Matthew, so..." James already has bandages and holds those up. He gets helps Adeline over to go sit down on a chair in the corner of the very large room. Adeline's ankle really wasn't all that bad, but her pain tolerance was pretty low. Canary looks over at Alice and she's already leaving the room.

"I'll take watch," she answers and grabs the pistol on the way out. Game on.


	23. Episode 11 (Minor Crisis Pt 3)

"Well?"

"Nothing so far," Alice says to Canary when she walks back into the room to check back roughly twenty minutes later with the rest of them. "And I'm not sure whether we should be anxious or relieved on that note."

"Agreed," mutters James, who finds it agonizing just laying in wait right now. Those natural super soldier instincts of his had his head going a hundred miles per hour, had his skin itching and crawling with anticipation. "Feels like we're in a zombie apocalypse game," James tries to joke.

"Let's just hope that Adam can get his ass in gear and jets over here already," Canary says from where's she's leaning on the wall near to the doorway. She had no doubt in her mind that Hydra agents would be searching for them and it wouldn't be good if they had to bolt and Matthew was still hooked up to an I.V and unconscious. The unknown man had given them a their choices before announcing his apparent impatience. No time limit was given, but Canary was sure that they would get one soon. This was only the calm before the storm.

"No shit," James muttered from where he was sitting on the floor.

"Didn't know you liked to cuss so much," Adeline says meekly. She was still shaken from the collapse and.. Jackson.

"I don't usually. I thought this was a fair exception-" They were all cut off by footsteps. Alice grabbed hold of the gun and leaned back against the wall near to the door, by in such a way where she could look out the glass frame in the upper part of it. Canary instantly noted that the tactical form Alice was displaying was military, but seemingly adapted in some manner. Interesting, but it wasn't the time for that now.

"One person, combat boots, seemingly unarmed, male, maybe about 6'0," Alice whispers the list. Adeline's expression goes to astonishment.

"You can tell all that? From down the far hall?" Adeline gasps. Alice puts her finger to her own lips as a symbol to be quiet.

"Yes," she whispers quietly and clicks the safety on her gun. James gets to his feet in anticipation as well. The double sliding doors to the first room of the medical facility opens. Alice peeks through the glass to see. "Hydra," she mouths. All of them tense. In another moment Alice kicks open the door and holds her gun up. "Long time no see," she quips to the young man. James knows who it is by that statement and by the look Adeline has James is pretty sure that Adeline knows too. "Too bad you didn't think to bring any of your buddies along."

"And leave you so greatly out-numbered? Now how would that be a fair fight?"

"You know what Jackson? I feel so damn sorry for you. The humiliation of being over-looked so many times by your superiors that you decide to walk right into a death sentence alone. I pity you," Alice says, mocking him in tone.

"This isn't a death sentence when I have the upper hand," says Jackson as he holds up Adeline's phone. James and Adeline walk into the room. "You see I sent a little S.O.S text to the Maximoff boy and it just so happens that he's right under the target of where the second fleet will be landing. Now these next few moments are up to you; You can either hand me that gun and I can tell him to leave, or you can shoot me and have Hydra shoot him. Clearly one of those options is pretty messy and I don't think we want that so," Jackson holds out his right palm, which is empty. Alice won't relinquish the gun. Adeline looks at Alice in horror.

"Alice!-"

"Look, the second I hand this weapon over he shoots us and JP dies and they win," Alice points out.

"And if they kill my brother we still lose!" Adeline pleads to them, looking around at each of them in turn. Alice looks at both Adeline and James, who seem to have made up their minds. Their stupid, ignorant minds. Alice clicks the safety back and flips the gun over, handing it to Jackson, to which he starts laughing hysterically.

"You guys seriously went for the oldest, most cliche trick in the book," Jackson sputters. He cocks the gun and switches the safety off. "Hydra doesn't negotiate. That fleet landed precisely fifteen minutes ago right on top of the Maximoff kid."Adeline gasped in sheer terror. Her hands flew to her mouth, covering, quivering in fear for her brother and tearing up.

"Bastard!" She screamed and suddenly the gun that Jackson had pointed at all of them began to shake and the magazine fell from it and the gun shattered to pieces with a haze of silver light. Jackson looked at the other things that were shaking and moving in the room then to Adeline. She literally had the whole space vibrating and was rendered defenseless in a minute.

"Never wise to dismiss your only leverage," James says lowly and Jackson is thrown up against the wall, but not by James. Jackson makes impact with the wall off to the side and it's Adam who delivers the blow. Behind him are Rori and JP, who seem to be completely fine. Things stop shaking as soon as Adeline see's her brother. Despite the considerable pain in her ankle she runs to him and wraps her arms around him as tight as she can, not appearing to be letting go any time soon.

"Damn it," Jackson swears angrily as he spits blood out of his mouth. Adam looks around at all of them.

"Alice, please escort Rori and JP to the back room," Adam says knowing that they are both the youngest by far. Alice does without question.

"You- you won't kill me," Jackson sputters "Hydra, they'll know."

"Yeah, yeah, cut off one head two more shall takes it's place, I've heard this whole spiel before," Adam says and it's not mocking so much as it's angry. "Adeline, go back with the others you won't want to see this." Adeline glances at Jackson before closing her eyes and turning away. Only a moment later she hears bones cracking then a heavy thud on the ground. James knew, since he had seen, that Adam had broken his neck. Instant death.

"Come on," Adam said to the two "we have a lot more to do. Let's go," he said very gently and he ushered Adeline away. She didn't even look back to risk getting a glimpse of the body. Was it wrong to be so unnerved knowing Adam had just killed someone? Someone he previously knew and even liked? It shook Adeline. Hard.

* * *

 ** _An hour Prior_**

JP followed the instructions given to him by the text in a hurry. He didn't understand what kind of trouble Adeline of all people may have gotten herself into, but she seemed pretty serious by the sms. JP didn't start to question things until he got to the far hanger bay, way at the other end of the compound. Adeline hadn't even ventured this far out which JP knew for sure. She was a homebody whenever she found a place where she was able to be. She hardly even left their house or the main building of the compound since they'd arrived here day one.

JP's suspicion only increased ten fold when then ceiling hanger bay doors opened and revealed two jets aiming to touch down and they didn't look like any S.H.I.E.L.D quin jets that JP had seen and there was no S.H.I.E.L.D insignia either, it wore something looking oddly like a skull with tentacles on it. Something was wrong and JP decided he should bolt before he'd have to find out what exactly that was.

JP started to run out of there, but by the time he'd made it to the exit of the huge space the first jet had already landed and had caught sight of him. "Hey!" A man shouted after him and JP's heart pounded. The man was armed and pointing the gun right at him. The man fired on the kid. JP's heart stopped. What else was he suppose to do? He could remember thinking then I'm going to die and I don't even know why.

Of course, that moment of death never came when the armed man, the gun and bullet all flew back with an extraordinarily unusual gust of wind that was powerful enough to redirect the propulsion of the bullet. JP looked up above him to find Adam flying slowly down over the railing of third story a catwalk, set up so that agents could maneuver easily to fix and restore quin-jets. Rori was standing up on the catwalk, standing worriedly and expectantly behind Adam. Adam touches down on the ground several feet in front of JP. "Murdering kids now? That's a new kind of low, even for you Hydra bastards." Several of the agents shout things in German and so neither Rori, JP nor Adam can understand a word that they're saying. Then get into formation quickly and prepare to open fire. A man in the back, probably their commander, speaks to them, but in English.

"You, the alleged Next Avengers, will fall just like those before you. It's your legacy."

"Maybe," Adam says outright "but you won't be around to find out." The Hydra agents fire, but the bullets are all repulsed by another impossibly strong force of wind and electricity formed from Adam's open palms faced towards them. All of the agents fly back as well as their guns and ammo. It all relents for a moment before Adam sets his sights on the other jet coming in, trying to land. Adam's eyes spark. Literally. He holds his open palm upwards towards the sky. His hand shakes and lighting crashes around it. The clouds get dark, as black as night before a devastating storm springs forward. Hail, thunder, rain and lightning all crash down and ravage the sky fighting for dominance over the other forms of chaos. The Hydra jet in the sky tries desperately to land, but with no avail as the turbines are struck with large bolts of lightning and it crashes down onto the far side of the landing pad, but even that doesn't last long. The wind picks up again and throws both of the planes far out, through the heavy, reinforced walls and out, crashing into the walls of the compound. Then it all stops. It all just stops. The only indication that something had really happened at all was the damages as the darkened sky. Adam leans over on one of the metal beams heavily, breathing pretty hard. JP moves forward.

"Don't," Adam hisses through clenched teeth. JP stops and doesn't move another step closer. Adam straitens and recomposes himself soon enough, silently fixing himself up so that not even a hair is out of place. He turns back to the two kids, who are shocked out of their wits. Sure, they were meta-humans, they could pull off a few small tricks, but nothing even close to what Adam had just displayed. "Well, clearly Hydra's infiltrated S.H.I.E.L.D somehow. Come one, we better find the others before they have an encounter like this."

* * *

 ** _Present Time_**

Adam looked over the discs embedded in Matthew's arms and legs. He whistles lowly. "It is a wonder he's still breathing right now. The amount of electricity rushing through him right now is..." Adam trailed off in his own bemusement. Adam held his hands out of Matthew's unconscious, deteriorating form. A few electrical sparks emitted from Adam's hands and the discs flew off. Matthew starting coughing and sputtering as soon as they were removed, coming out of his soporific state. He tried to move, but Adam eased him back down so that he was laying still. "Easy, easy now. It's alright." All of the kids kept their eyes trained on Matthew since he'd just woken up for the first time in nearly 24 hours. Matthew's body is already starting to regenerate quickly, although he's still sweating profusely. The color is starting to return to his skin, but only to a certain point. The cuts or gashes where the discs were dug into his skin were healing at an incredibly fast rate, but he still looked very psychically drained.

"Can't really... feel my hands," Matthew admits, sounding groggy. Adam hums lightly.

"Yeah, don't worry about that. If you're healing this fast already I'm sure nerve damage is out of the question."

"Adam... there's Hydra... viruses, attacking S.H-"

"We already know about that," said Alice cutting in, mainly to have him save his breath since he had been barely breathing until recently and to get him caught up quick since she was done with these annoying circles. "They bombed the damn place and that's why we're currently held up here."

"That.. can't be right.. they weren't suppose to... attack until tomorrow.. it said-"

"You've been out a whole day," Alice interjected again and Matthew's eyes went wide.

"W-what?!"

"Whoa, calm down now. Let's just back-track for a moment here; you said that you knew yesterday that HYDRA was going to attack?" Adam asks and this questions seems to peak the interest of a few of the other kids. Matthew nods weakly. "How?" Matthew hesitates to answer, but Adam stares harshly down at him expectantly.

"Hacked S.H.I.E.L.D... Canary and I assumed that.. something was up," Matthew muttered and Adam sighed. Well if that was all. Adam wouldn't even bother to mention the whole Hacking S.H.I.E.L.D thing. It was impressive and probably not something he should make a habit of, but Adam was angry at Maria Hill and Director Coulson as of right now so in Adam's mind Matthew pretty much earned a Thumbs Up.

"You found a Hydra virus inside the system?" Asks James who seems pretty shocked that after what his dad had told him from back in 2014 when Hydra had compromised S.H.I.E.L.D security the first time that they would have done a better job at protecting things virtually.

"Yeah," Matthew says, finally starting to come to more now.

"And.. Jackson attacked you because you found it?" Adeline asks in no more than a mere whisper.

"No," Matthew says as he weakly starts to sit up "he attacked me because I found out how to stop it."


	24. Episode 11 (Minor Crisis Pt 4)

"Okay," Adam says, finalizing his barely thought out plan "I'll get Matthew to the damn control room and we can be done with this."

"What about the rest of us?" Canary asks and Adam only shakes his head.

"You're not ready for this." Many of the others kids don't seem very pleased regarding his answer.

"Neither are you," JP interjects into the conversation "you took out those Hydra agents earlier and you were and are still drained from it." Adam gave the kid a pretty harsh look. Adam wasn't sure whether it was some prideful or egotistical reason, or maybe some part of his Asgardian nature that always angered him and put him on edge whenever someone made any accusation as to him being weak.

"And not to contradict you more, but we did manage to find Matthew, take Jackson down and escape Hydra agents and collapsing buildings all on our lonesome," says Alice while trying not to smirk as Adam scowls.

"Actually, Jackson held you all at gun point," Adam grumbles under his breath.

"Correction," Alice cuts in again, crossing her arms "he was completely unarmed by the time you arrived." Adam looked back at all of the kids. Eyeing each and every one of them in turn.

"I won't ask you to fight."

"You assume that you have to?" James says to him. Adam shook his head again, one last time.

"You really don't know what you're getting into," Adam attempts finally.

"No," Canary says from where she's leaning against the wall near her finally awoken friend "we don't. Obviously. But I can safely speak for all of us when I say that we can't let people die because we're just sitting here arguing like children." You are children, Adam thinks to say but he doesn't and lets Canary continue. "Jackson was our friend and we all believed that. He was willing to kill us without a second thought so we know very well what Hydra is capable of doing to S.H.I.E.L.D." Adam finally relents.

"You all better do exactly what I fucking tell you to do," he says sternly and the other all nod. Adam walks out into the other room and they follow him. "You'll need these." Adam snaps and the cases fly out on the floor. The cases they all received at the start of their little journey when S.H.I.E.L.D contacted them all. Rori grinned and opened hers up immediately. She had so been wanting to wear it already.

They were all given tasks. Some simple some more intensive. Adam gave them all com links that connected directly to his first and foremost. Some of them wondered why he was so over the top tense about this. It wasn't at all like Adam, though this was a intense situation, you wouldn't even be able to recognize him from yesterday. He teamed them up and they all dawned their suits, some complained more than other about it.

"Is it suppose to to sting like this?" Matthew complained to Adam as he looked over the suit S.H.I.E.L.D supplied that he was now wearing. "And make you fell...kinda dizzy."

"That last part would most likely be due to you being unconscious and electrified until recently. The other part is just faulty S.H.I.E.L.D tech. Seems to be a theme lately, huh?" Adam said as he cut another hallway. The plan was very delicate and probably shouldn't have been since they were only a small group and that of unstable teenaged meta-humans, but they were all screwed over anyways, so to hell with insecurities at this point. Adam was leading Matthew to the main control room, yes, where all of Hydra was currently storing their fire-power and all of the hostages, so he could use his hypothetical whatever he called it from using old S.H.I.E.L.D programs from about two decades ago that would somehow be a loop hole to today's future tech that Hydra was using. Adam really didn't understand it all. Wait, hypothetical? "You do know what you're doing, right?"

"Yes, I mean, sorta," Matthew mumbled. Adam looked back at him, twitching a bit nervously and exasperatedly.

"Sorta? No way am I about to bet my life on a _sorta_ ," Adam says and it would almost sound a little comical in it's verbal delivery if it weren't completely true. Matthew sighs tiredly and leans against the wall of the hallway. He's still tired and vastly drained. The electrical interfacing of those discs did manage to do a number on him. Adam helped him get back steady on his feet and the pair got moving again.

"I don't think you're going be much use to me in a fight like this," Adam points out displeasingly.

"I dunno, wouldn't that whole hybrid instinct thing just kick in again like last time?" Adam shrugs to the kids question.

"I have no idea."

"What do you mean you have no idea?" Matthew snaps back.

"Look, I've never exactly met any hybrids before you. I did mention that they are extremely rare and that I have no idea how their powers work-"

"No, you never mentioned that last part before," Matthew muttered under his breath whilst Adam was still talking.

"-though I have heard some things on the alleged hybrid instinct. Apparently it's like a powerful defense mechanism that pretty much protects the person by leveling and destroying everything around it to ensure it's psychical security." Matthew just stared at the demi-god and as the influx of emotion came out of Adam's statement came, the inhibitors in his suit started to work harder and, obviously, seemed to sting him even more. Which made sense since his powers are directly tied to his emotions.

"So... part of me is suppose to be a killer?!-"

"No, no, no," Adam says quickly and literally covers Matthew's mouth when he hears heavy clad boots scuff across the floor of the next hall down. He shoves Matthew against the wall and Adam, placing himself in front, peeks slightly over the end of the wall. Only two guards. Armed. Adam uncovers Matthew's mouth and motions to him to stay still. Matthew nods and Adam jets into the other hallway with a gust of wind, floating up off of his feet and Matthew's eyes go wide. Adam flips the first Hydra agents gun up under his chin and snapping his neck back. Dead. Adam takes that gun and whips the second Hydra agent so hard in the side of the head that he smacks his head into the wall, splattering blood all over the paint, before the man even had a chance to cock his gun. Matthew stares at the scene before him. Adam wipes a few drops of the blood off the side of his cheek before looking back at the teenager. "There's killers and there's murderers, kid. I swear on my life that I won't let you become either of those if you don't want to." Lord only knows Adam wasn't given a choice.

* * *

"I don't think that this is the right way," Rori muttered.

"Shut up, I know where we're going," Alice snaps to the younger girl. Rori stifles her speech and looks down. James rolls his eyes.

"Do you really have to be like that?" He asks to the Russian as she cuts down another pathway in the large storage room.

"Do you really have to ask that?" Alice shoots right back. James mutters something under his breath and Alice tells herself that she doesn't want to know anyways. The jobs given out were not so simple. It was Alice and James' job to get Rori into the tech room only two floors above the main control room, where all sources of Hydra agents were emitting. Well, that and the roof, where Canary was leading Adeline and JP so that they could use their forceful powers to blow Hydra's jets and extra artillery far off grounds, scattering and destroying all of it.

The job tasked to Rori, James and Alice specifically was to take over the building surveillance room, take down the few Hydra agent's that were stationed at and remove their watch over everyone. They were supposed to see if they could see what happened to the S.H.I.E.L.D agents in the main control room. No one knew what became of them.

"James, Alice... what do you think the Hydra agents did to S.H.I.E.L.D and Miss Hill?" Rori asks very nervously, twirling her strawberry blonde hair.

"Probably shot them," and Alice seems pretty monotonous in saying it. James glares at Alice. How could she possibly even think to say that in a time like this?!

"What the hell is your problem?!" James yells, reaching his boiling point. James' hands ball into fists.

"I don't like it either, but I'm being realistic," Alice snaps, but her edge fades soon after. James still is clearly angry at her. Rori looks nervously between the two of them, but keeps her mouth completely shut. Alice was just trying to stay even. Stating the reality of the situation would keep her on track and heavily focused on her goals. She couldn't afford to live and breath in the suppressive delusions the others were involving themselves in, because they, in their own minds, were making the situation out to be not nearly as bad in their conscious mind as it actually was. Alice knew better and knew if they didn't get moving that people would be dead. Alice knew discovered what death really was at a young age. Alice quickly shook herself out of it and refused to let herself delve back into those distasteful memories. She increased her pace so that James and Rori had to keep up with her, saving time in the long run by increasing their speed.

James saw the door to the surveillance room. He looked back at Alice and Rori. Alice moved Rori to the side and out of the way. "Ready?" James whispered quietly. Alice nods as she feels for the gun in the holster worn around her black and red suit. James turns his gaze back forward and kicks open the door.

* * *

"Move!" Canary yells as she pulls Adeline down under cover. Hydra agents were continuing to fire on them. JP was on the other side of the roof top. Alone. However, he had his kinetic energy fields which were apparently useful for deflecting bullets. Who knew? Anyways, they were still in a lot of trouble. While JP was busy guarding himself from the onslaught of firepower Hydra had going his way, he was completely unable to use his own abilities to get rid of the last two jets and Canary and Adeline were pretty much sitting ducks in this position.

"Crap!" Adeline yells loudly as she peeks over the makeshift barricade of the wing of a broken quin-jet. "What do we do?!"

"Go!" Canary shouts as she pushes Adeline over to different close cover as the Hydra agent's advance closer. Canary looks around quick to try and find a solution. For now JP is out of immediate danger and the agents up here don't seem to be too interested in him at the moment. Maybe he faked his escape, only Canary could seem him from the angle she was in. Canary could also see from this angle that the Hydra agents were only coming on from the right and left the left side wide open, along with a direct path to the second last of their jets. "Adeline! Ready?!" Canary says, hoping Adeline can see it exactly the way she does and Adeline catches on after a minute.

"Yeah!" She yells, albeit nervously. She holds out her hands and silver lights fly around them. Canary draws her guns, one in each hand. Canary breathed out. She could do this. She'd trained for this all of her life. Canary tumbled out from behind their cover and fired. Her guns gave the appearance of pistols, but were built like automatics. A little present from the S.H.I.E.L.D case. The Hydra agents were caught of guard by the kid going on offense. In the brief moment of distraction, Adeline, despite herself, runs out into the open and uses her powers to blast the quin-jet off of the roof and with the unstable nature of her strong powers, most of the Hydra agents along with it.

"Not bad," Canary says a little out of breath just from the stress of the whole ordeal. She can see all of the agents in this area are down, yet her grip on her guns don't lessen any.

"JP! Where's JP?!" Adeline yells, looking around frantically. "Where is he?!" Canary is at a loss for an answer.

* * *

"Guys, we're minutes from the control room," Matthew says through the radio coms connecting them to everyone and each other "you really have got to get those cameras down."

"Working on it!" James yells back through his com as he's taking fire from the Hydra agents. James is really glad that they all seem poorly trained. Just standing there and firing blindly is not a great tactic. Not that James is going to complain if they're making it easier for him. It does allay the apparent panic a bit. Alice has Rori down on the other side of the room. Alice is firing back with alarming accuracy. She was as much of a protege as any. James can't help but wonder who in the world trained her. James clicks the trigger and find the his magazine in empty. He curses and and ducks down before he finds he has no more rounds left. James slams the gun down on the floor before flipped over iron table he was using as a cover. James stays low and kicks the legs out from under the closest Hydra agents and he goes falling backwards and his guns shoots upwards at other Hydra agents. James spins back around on the floor and brings down another, then quickly gets back onto his feet to hit down another by twisting the right arm of the Hydra agent back, the side his gun is on, and then James' knee comes in contact with the Hydra agents chest. Vest or no vest a blow from a super soldier like that hurts and as the Hydra agents doubles over due to the pain in his gut, James thrusts his knee up again to his the agents face, rendering him unconscious immediately. James rolls out of the way off another few shots and by this time his heart is pounding. So hard James swears that it will burst out of his chest at any moment now. James twists the guys ankle and as the agent falls James pulls his gun out of his hand and fires at the remaining Hydra agents behind them, getting him down, but not killing him. "All clear," James announces and Alice drags Rori out from behind their cover and over to the computers.

"Go fast," Alice demands and Rori spares no time getting to work. Her fingers fly across the keyboard and she curses more than a few times as things keep coming up to try and block her out of the system, but eventually she prevails. Images on all nine screens pop up, all triangulating in the main hallways to the control room and inside the control room.

"Oh my god," James breathes, wide eyed. He leans in closer to look in disbelief. "They've got all the agents down on their knees at gun-point. Hostages!"

"This isn't good," Alice frets. While James and Rori continue on the verge of panic Alice looks on and squints her eyes to look at the blurry image of Maria Hill. She doing several different motions with her hand pressed against her leg. Very subtle and mainly unnoticeable. Morse code! Alice quickly points it out.

"Left side... unguarded... watch out for... Z-E-M-O?"

"Um, what's a Zemo?" Asks Rori and Alice doesn't know that answer. She shrugs and looks back at the screen.

"I don't know, but whatever it is Agent Hill seems anxious about it." _A woman like her anxious? That cannot be a good sign,_ James thinks.

"Adam, take the left side, their agents are spread very thin on that side," James announces through the com links.

"Copy that," he sends back through his own ear piece. Adam glances back at the teenager trying his hardest to follow closely behind the demi-god, but struggling all the while. A light frown touches Adam's lips. "We're almost done with this whole mess and once we are you can rest." Matthew nods and continues on with him.

"There's one more thing," James adds and Adam can hear him talking with the other girls faintly through the com link. "Agent Hill is trying to warn us about something called a Zemo...?"

* * *

"Shit!" Adam swears heavily.

" _Is it bad?_ " James asks.

"Yes," Adam answers, tapping his ear piece a little harder than he needed to " _he_ is. Very."

"He?" Matthew asks. "Is he a head of Hydra?"

"He was. Baron Zemo, back in 1943, got his hands on a few things he shouldn't of and now he's still alive, young and kicking." Zemo, many decades ago, created something called the X virus with a brilliant, albeit slightly insane scientist, named Arnim Zola. Unfortunately for Zemo he got infected with it. Sure, it altered his body chemistry in certain ways that had it's advantages, but a downside was indefinite bodily decay. Arnim Zola was able to create a temporary antidote, but it had to be readministered quite often. They were never able to create a lasting antidote without the one key ingredient, the one everyone wanted in the 40's. And that was, yes, the super soldier serum given to Steven Rogers by Doctor Erskine. How did Adam know all of this? Let's just say, in the meta-human community today, everyone knows everyone. Like a Hollywood freak show.

"Uh oh."

"Yeah _uh oh_ ," Adam says in mock, knowing that it is so much worse and more deserving than an uh-oh. Baron Zemo had only been taken down by the one and only Captain America and it's not like Adam could exactly just call him up. In addition, Zemo hadn't aged, Captain America surely had in the last twenty years; give or take. "Zemo will require my full attention and that still leaves a full room of Hydra agents. Matthew's in no condition to fight. I'll need some sort of back-up."

" _We'll see what we can manage_ ," Alice says through the coms and then Adam can hear her asking Rori if she can reconnect communications with the outside world.

"If you can only get one call out," Adam say through the radio and he feels like he's almost gambling with this one "call up Agent Samantha S. if anyone can arrange a strategic attack on time she can." Adam knows it's a risky move, especially after how he'd left things with her after their fight. She'd probably had been right of course, but Adam was willing to bet that even with his stupidity Samantha wasn't going to put his life and the lives on the line over a grudge.

" _Got it_ ," Alice says before handing off the com again, leaving Adam in momentary silence.

"Let's go," Adam says. He follows down the halls that Rori is guiding him through. She's able to tell him exactly where each Hydra agent is stationed and that proves to be very useful. Adam is able to take them out covertly and continue on. It clear to see that Matthew is being more and more put on edge by seeing the trail of bodies Adam is leaving. It and the situation pumps some adrenaline into his system which makes him start to feel strangely so much better and strangely worse. He feels that strange force of strength working it's way back into his muscles, but at the same time he starts to feel that acid like tingle pulse through his veins. That was always the part that hurt and usually he was too distracted by whatever crisis was apparent to notice it as much, but now he could feel all of it. Every single unpleasant sensation burning him up on the inside at once. "Hey, you good?" Adam asks when he detects the shift in Matthew's movements and expressions.

"Yeah, I'm actually starting to feel a bit better," he claims and at first Adam very much doubts it, but then he notes the tan color starting to return to his skin, he was becoming less shaky and his veins were starting to become less visible, well except for those that remained dark green looking in their hue.

"Almost there. Let's put this bastard down," Adam says determinedly. Matthew follows, albeit at a faster pace now. He's suddenly starting to feel so awakened, but he's not sure how long it'll lost. Sure, he feels strong and empowered now, but he knows whenever the drop come he will literally drop out cold.

Adam blows the two Hydra agents guarding the door back through it with a gust of wind, blowing the heavy iron back way doors off their hinges. All of the Hydra agents who are inside the room turn and point their guns at Adam. "Well, thanks for the warm welcome," he says taking the stage and motioning for Matthew to stay back and out of sight "not really the best welcoming wagon, but we'll work on it."

"Ah, Anundr. Mr. Adam Eric Foster," says a man in a dark purple suit that covers his entire body and is tight to his skin. He has dual wield swords on his back, a whip tied around his waist like a belt and two pistols in the holsters dropping lower than his waist. "Disappointing that you've come alone, but such is life. A Disappointment."

"I didn't come here to debate philosophy with you, Zemo," Adam says dryly "and since when did you develop such an existential crisis?" Zemo hums in an amused sort of way before a light chuckle breaks through and the outline of his mouth can be seen through the purple body suit.

"I'm going to miss these little talks of ours, Mr. Foster," says the Baron as he leans over on the bars of the cat walk to the second half floor of the control room.

"You say that like it's over for good this time."

"Oh but it is sadly," says the Zemo as he unsheathes one of his swords and runs his covered fingers over it "once you chose the losing side. To be honest, I'm genuinely surprised that you did given the treatment you've received from S.H.I.E.L.D."

"Yes, I did surprise myself on that fact as well," Adam admits, but at this point he's just stalling for time. Adam had met Baron Zemo for the first time after he escaped from S.W.O.R.D more or less in his teen years. The man had been just as unhinged and eccentric then.

"So I suppose then I shouldn't put the blame to my organization for not being more... persuasive in seeking your recruitment," Zemo says nearly venomously. Some of the S.H.I.E.L.D agents, who are still down in the middle of the room, look at Adam with raped attention on this note, especially Maria Hill. She certainly hadn't known that Adam had been offered a position at Hydra.

"Well, the deciding factor really came down to the part in the job description that detailed mass murder," Adam said just as dangerously.

"Humble like a simple man, but with the power of a god," Zemo mutters, shaking his head "you could have had anything."

"But at the same time I would have had nothing."

"Now who is the one being philosophical?" Zemo says in an amused, mock tone. He chuckles again for a short time before pointing his sword outwards. "I believe our little game is coming to an end."

"So it is," Adam says as he conjures electricity in his hands. Zemo looks amused.

"You understand that surely you can't save all of the agents here," Zemo says gesturing around with his hands "or even most of them. In fact, with our programming still in place, you can hardly save anyone. There are things you just can't accomplish alone, Mr. Foster." Adam smirks as right as Zemo's statement is finishing a loud click can be heard.

"That's why I brought a friend." Zemo looks over just as all of the Hydra emblems on the computer screens fade out. The Baron clutches his sword tightly and looks around to find a young boy is responsible for this. Their program had been compromised by a child.

"No!" Zemo yells angrily and begins to run at the boy. Adam throws his hands down on the ground which causes a minor shock wave, hitting Hydra agents down who are on this level, giving the S.H.I.E.L.D agents a fighting chance, even though they are out-numbered. Adam thrusts himself forward and knocks Zemo off the other end of the catwalk and the two men tumble onto the ground roughly, but Adam is just glad the Matthew is out of immediate danger in his weakened state. Zemo swings on the demi-god, he dodges swiftly and the dangerous game is on.

* * *

JP could hear the screaming voices of the two girls, Canary and Adeline. Calling his name, but it was drowned out by the loud noise of gunshots. JP can only pray that they'd found cover on time. The silver haired boy had found his own hiding spot that was right near the last Hydra jet, but the jet itself had levitated into the air and had it's guns set on the two girls who were hiding under cover and most likely trying to figure out what the hell to do. JP didn't even pause to think, he just acted without a second thought. He conjured as much energy as he possibly could, let it well and fill within his chest until he was sure he was burst at the seams. JP jumped out from his hiding spot and held his hand out towards the jet. Blue, silvery rivets blew towards the jet in what looked like and electrical field and blew the jet out of the sky. It crashed down hard through the twenty story drop to the ground below. All of the Hydra agents flew backwards and many fell off the building.

JP slowly walked forward as the smoke cleared. Everyone seemed to be taken out by his one single blast, which should have been impossible, yet it hadn't been. Apparently. Everything was taken care of. Then JP felt a siring pain in his shoulder. JP touched the spot with his fingers and they were almost instantly coated in a hot sticky liquid. JP eyes went wide and time seemed to slow and things didn't even seem real after that. It didn't even seem like he could have even been shot, but he had.

 _"Jeremy!"_

* * *

It didn't take long for the control room to become the grounds a battle royal. All of the S.H.I.E.L.D agents had been liberated and were now joining the fight against Hydra, even though they were still out-numbered and mainly weaponless, but they were much better trained than the Hydra rats that were basically crawling out of hole in the wall head quarters. They had mainly been driven out of the U.S and nearly the world all together. Maria Hill had no doubt that this might well have been a final desperate attack.

Adam was very preoccupied with Baron Zemo and couldn't help any of the other agents. Adam had promptly told Matthew to get out of the way and out of the fight, but escape was really out of the question since the fight was unavoidable.

Adam pulled another kick-flip on Zemo, which seemed to be the only move that proved to do anything. This guy was quick, agile and unbelievably well-trained. Zemo swung his sword horizontally and the very tip of it scratched Adam's upper chest, it drew a thin line of blood. Adam's teeth ground together, but not visibly. The fight between them is pretty one-sided.

"I'm disappointed with you, Anundr. Your skills seem to be quite lacking. Does age really take so much toll?"

"I'm 22 jackass," Adam growls as he throws another energy ball, which Zemo deflects with his odd sword. If Adam had to guess by now he would assume that it was made of either vibranium or adamantium.

"Then perhaps and emotional toll. Lilith, yes?" Adam tenses and Zemo swings his sword again, which is nearly, nearly a death stroke. "It's true then. You are as decayed on the inside as I am on the outside."

"That would explain the crazy pajama's then," someone taunted from behind Zemo and as the Baron turned his head slightly to see Adam was able to take the opportunity to strike. Zemo went flying back, but Adam knew that it wouldn't keep him down for long.

"Didn't I tell you to get out of here?!" Adam yells at the teenager. Matthew throws his hands up.

"Have you seen this place?!"

"We can manage without you just fine. Now get the hell o- Down!" Adam blows Matthew back with a gust of wind as Zemo soars over with his sword pointed strait out. Adam is able to make sure Matthew avoids the blow by Adam himself gets his arm slashed pretty badly on Zemo's second strike.

Things seem like they are getting worse and worse. S.H.I.E.L.D agents seem to be dropping like flies, since most of them were hardly trained, as in OP's agents, not field agents. Hydra was starting to prevail and things didn't seem like the could get much worse.

And on a strange stroke a fate; they got better.

S.H.I.E.L.D agents in full gear swarmed from all hallways on all sides. They were packed and armed to the brim with guns and armor and at the center of the largest group on the second level of the room was Samantha. Adam smirked and shook his head. He could hardly believe it. The tides started to shift in their favor then. Adam continued to keep his full attention on Zemo, with more concentration with the knowledge that other matters were being taken care of. "Hilarious that you need other to fight your battles," Zemo spat as the swung his sword again, cutting Adam's forearm, but lightly. He was taking a beating here and he didn't feel good, he even started to sway on his various maneuvering around Zemo's blows. "Has the poison started to sink in yet?"

"Pajama clad bastard," Adam muttered and it did feel a little odd saying it. Maybe he was poisoned.

"Their not pajama's!- This blade has been laced with Virus X. It isn't able to sink through and penetrate Asgardian cells permanently, but none the less it shouldn't be pleasant."

"Oh, you gave me a bunch of poisoned gnashes? You shouldn't have," Adam mocked, trying to use comedy to distract attention from how god awful he felt right now. He was getting slower and weaker and that wouldn't not serve him well now as it seemed that Zemo was moving faster. All Adam could do was use his abilities to parry the blows, but that only served to drain him as well. He didn't exactly like the direction this fight was turning into.

"No, won't kill an Asgardian, but humans- lets just saw I know the prolonged effects all too well," Zemo hissed like the damned snake he was. He pulled the other sword off of his back, still freshly laced with poison and aimed it right at Samantha. He would throw it at her and she we be struck down and dead almost immediately.

"No!" Adam started to move in his path, but Zemo would have released his grip by the time he got there. Then there was a deafening sound of a gunshot, way closer than all of the others. It went off several times and Zemo's body jolted each time, the gunshots coming from behind him and Adam knew who was behind him. Zemo croaked and gasped before he dropped the swords and fell flat, his toxic blood spilling out in spades. Adam stared down at Zemo until he heard something else clatter against the the metal cat walk.

The gun that Matthew had used to kill Baron Zemo.

The kid looked horrified. Completely and utterly horrified.

"Hey," Adam said with one hand out when he saw the kids panicked blue eyes change to green, meaning that he was emotionally distressed "you did what you had to. He was going to kill Sam and he was going to kill me-"

"I fucking killed someone!" Adam could clearly see that Matthew's panic wasn't subsiding any and he wasn't calming down. At all. Hydra agents were advancing on this part of the catwalk to try and aid Zemo, Adam was sure that they would not be happy to find that he was dead. Adam grabbed Matthew despite the kid shrinking away and flew out of there as bullets rained down behind them. Matthew was still in a state of shock, but just staying there would have gotten him killed. Adam got him outside of the battle, albeit very roughly. The demi-god looked back into the room and saw the fight was winding down, but that S.H.I.E.L.D still needed some help. Adam grabbed Matthew's shoulders and shook him a little.

"Hey! I know, but you've got to pull it together! This is not over yet and you can't break down now! Now here's what you're going to do," Adam knew he was being rough and insensitive, but he didn't have time to coddle the kid and besides, he was never very good at it anyways. "You're going to go down this hall way, you're going to go up to the fourth floor and you're going to go to the surveillance room and meet up with Alice, James and Rori. You got all that?" Matthew nods, still unsure. "Then go!" Matthew takes off and Adam rejoins the fight. He goes and goes and goes until he's 100% sure that every single Hydra agent is dead and many of them were by his hand.

* * *

 **A/N: Yes! Samantha has returned briefly for a very short, dialogue-free cameo and yet she still helped to save the day.**

 **Thank you JessicaMarshall563 for lending me your character. :)**

 **Click here to read Samantha's story "Don't You Worry Child".**

 **V** **user/JessicaMarshall563**


	25. Episode 12 (Starting Out Pt 1)

**Previously on "Dangerous Games"...**

 _"Does anyone know where Matthew is?" Canary asks._

 _"Actually, not that you mention it I haven't seen him at all today and he usually spends all morning brooding in the living room," Rori says with a giggles. JP also snickers._

 _"Nah, haven't seen him either," says JP after he's done. Canary looks at Adam and he only looks guilty and doesn't comment. Canary's eye widen in mild anger and disappointment. She wonders if they'd had another fight after the fact._

 _"Past-tense?" Alice says as she crosses her legs and snuggles in more to the plush gold couch. "Did you two have a spat?"_

 _"No," Adeline snaps and she starts to walk to her room "he left."_

 _"What?" Alice says very surprised and shattering her whole game and turning serious. "He..left?"_

 _"Jackson said so," Adeline says with a small, sad shrug. "He's gone." Alice didn't fully know why, but she felt saddened to hear that he'd gone. She hardly knew him, wasn't even close to him in any way, but it still struck her down, but also struck her as odd. Would S.H.I.E.L.D and Maria Hill just let him leave? Just let him go like that? Certainly not. Alice had found Canary earlier rummaging through Matthew's room and Alice had asked curiously what she was doing. It was odd that Adeline said he had just left and without bringing any of his belongings. Also, how would Adam not have said a word? Why had anyone not said a word?_

 _"No he isn't."_

 _"Jackson?!" Canary gasps. Yes, she had her suspicions, but there was something about a familiar face you thought of as kind to be now categorized as traitorous and dangerous._

 _"Well this is awkward," he states._

 _"You're a mole for Hydra!"_

 _"You- you won't kill me," Jackson sputters "Hydra, they'll know."_

 _"Yeah, yeah, cut off one head two more shall takes it's place, I've heard this whole spiel before," Adam says and it's not mocking so much as it's angry. "Adeline, go back with the others you won't want to see this." Adeline glances at Jackson before closing her eyes and turning away. Only a moment later she hears bones cracking then a heavy thud on the ground. James knew, since he had seen, that Adam had broken his neck. Instant death._

 _"There one more thing," James adds and Adam can hear him talking with the other girls faintly through the com link. "Agent Hill is trying to warn us about something called a Zemo...?"_

 _"Shit!" Adam swears heavily._

 _"Is it bad?" James asks._

 _"Yes," Adam answers, tapping his ear piece a little harder than he needed to " **he** is. Very."_

 _"He?" Matthew asks. "Is he a head of Hydra?"_

 _"He was. Baron Zemo, back in 1943, got his hands on a few things he shouldn't of and now he's still alive, young and kicking."_

 _"This blade has been laced with Virus X. It isn't able to sink through and penetrate Asgardian cells permanently, but none the less it shouldn't be pleasant."_

 _"Oh, you gave me a bunch of poisoned gnashes? You shouldn't have," Adam mocked, trying to use comedy to distract attention from how god awful he felt right now._

 _"No, won't kill an Asgardian, but humans- lets just saw I know the prolonged effects all too well," Zemo hissed like the damned snake he was. He pulled the other sword off of his back, still freshly laced with poison and aimed it right at Samantha. He would throw it at her and she we be struck down and dead almost immediately._

 _"No!" Adam started to move in his path, but Zemo would have released his grip by the time he got there. Then there was a deafening sound of a gunshot, way closer than all of the others. It went off several times and Zemo's body jolted each time, the gunshots coming from behind him and Adam knew who was behind him. Zemo croaked and gasped before he dropped the swords and fell flat, his toxic blood spilling out in spades. Adam stared down at Zemo until he heard something else clatter against the the metal cat walk._

 _The gun that Matthew had used to kill Baron Zemo._

* * *

"So you're final statement is that an organization such as HYDRA was driven out by eight children?" Said S.H.I.E.L.D executive Thomas Calderon.

"Well, seven kids and a demi-god," Maria Hill answered dryly, though with a hint of bitter amusement to see the various S.H.I.E.L.D higher-ups expressions over the vertical plasma screens in office, rather than in the control room where she'd normally be if it wasn't completely trashed at the moment.

"Maybe we've underestimated the initiates," suggested Anne Weaver, another executive of S.H.I.E.L.D.

"Let's keep in mind that they are still just kids though," Coulson reprimands as he hears the fascination in agent Weavers voice.

"But children or not they did manage to infiltrate Hydra and reclaim the northern S.H.I.E.L.D Head Quarters," agent Weaver protests.

"And this program was created to train and raise them to become a new, better generation of enhanced. Just like revamping S.H.I.E.L.D in the same sense," agent Calderon adds, seemingly on the same boat as agent Weaver.

"Agent Johnson, you've been unusually quiet," Maria Hill intervenes. Agent Skye Johnson looks up from her chair and Maria Hill can see she's quite lost in thought even through the screen.

"I just disagree," Skye says and she earns some possibly disapproving looks from the other two executives. "These kids are just that. Kids. Even if they do have amazing powers it doesn't change that." Coulson nods to Skye before looking over at the other two agents.

"We'll just have to put it to a vote then," Maria says, holding her hands behind her. They all seem to agree to this. "Wonderful. All who vote to move the children onto phase 2?" Agent Weaver and Calderon vote on this. "All who appose?" Maria asks, even though she knows it's two out of three already. Coulson was the director, but agents Johnson, Weaver and Calderon were the executives who voted on these types of matters. Unless it was a top priority mission with lives on the line, then Coulson got all off the S.H.I.E.L.D oriented power, other than those times it was put to the others.

Skye was opposed immediately. "So it's decided then. We move Project Next Avengers to phase 2," Coulson declares and Skye looks sadly at him. Coulson shrugs defeated as if to convey that there's nothing he can do here.

"So that's that," Maria Hill says lowly and then ends the call and the screens fade back to black.

_Dangerous Games_

"Adeline!" JP whines and Adeline sighs and uses her powers to make JP's soda can float to his hand. He had been a major drama queen regarding his injury. He wouldn't really even use his left arm, Adeline was just glad it wasn't his right side, his dominant side, or else she would have to do literally everything for him, more than she already was.

Several of the kids sat in the living room this morning. Some weren't up yet and Adam was in a meeting with agents Samantha and Hill as far as they knew.

"You shouldn't be playing up your injury like that," James scolds lowly and disapprovingly "there were people who were actually hurt."

"I was shot," JP deadpans and James resists the urge to roll his eyes.

"A week ago and it was mainly deflected by your energy shield."

"What's your point?" JP says and annoys James. JP sips his soda and looks back over at the blonde.

"His point is," Canary cuts in almost angrily "that people died during that crisis. Yeah, you were shot in the shoulder, but others were shot in the heart for Christs sake!" With that line Matthew quickly gets up and starts to walk off. "Matt," Canary starts sadly. He was pretty shaken from the event and had some lasting trauma from it. Canary grabs his forearm, but he shakes it off and walks out of the room and back into his own bedroom.

Matthew slammed his bedroom door behind him, _but instead of a heavy thud the door created an odd clicking sound; Matthew knew instantly what it was. Matthew whipped around and saw Zemo, bloody chested and lifeless. Gunshots went off and a shadowy figure had pulled the trigger four times. The same number of times Matthew had shot the Baron, he felt a deep pang in his chest with every bang. Matthew turned back around to face the shadowed figure. The guy smirked and stepped into the light. He was a complete mirror image of Matthew, but his eyes and veins were green. The mirrored image was smirking devilishly and his eyes were completely soulless and filled with hate and rage. It was a terrifying emptiness, with no guilt. Matthew froze in horror. Is that what he actually looked like? On the inside?_

 _"You killed him," the mirrored Matthew spoke and his voice was so eased, but dark, free of guilt of admitting to the death he had caused, even if that man was a sorry son of a bitch, Matthew had caused him to drown in his own toxic blood. "And it was so easy." The mirrored man raised his gun to Matthew's chest and fired without any hesitation. Matthew swore he felt the bullet plunge and rip through his heart, tearing it apart from the inside. Matthew cried out as more bullets were fired into his chest and as he fell to his knee's his vision blurred and suddenly he was the on behind the gun. Murder._

Matthew bolted up right in bed, violently awoken from his nightmare. His chest felt constricted and his lungs refused to let in any air. Matthew kept trying to breathe, but it sounded more like panting. He curled up tightly, pulled his knees to his chest and tensed, which probably was the worst thing he could do right then, but it was a natural human response. Matthew had no idea what was going on and that freaked him out even more. He kept trying to breathe, but couldn't, so he kept gasping for air.

The door to Matthew's door creaked open and a disgruntled red head stood in it's wake. Matthew had clearly woken her up again, but the panicking teenager didn't even notice Alice standing there. Alice was prepared to snap at the guy for disturbing her again, but seeing him now she was actually concerned. She hesitated for a moment, put one foot passed the threshold, but then decided to turn back and walk away, leaving Matthew to himself.

* * *

Alice approached Canary the next day in the training room downstairs. Usually she, James and Alice herself could be found down there. Others like Rori, JP and Adeline now seemed to avoid it at all costs. It just went to show that everyone was dealing with the trauma of recent events differently.

Canary was currently at the far back wall where a small shooting range was set up. She was firing on a few different targets with alarming accuracy for someone her age, but Alice supposed that you didn't get the title of protege for nothing. "Maybe I was right to not piss you off," Alice mentions loudly so that Canary can hear her since she's wearing protective ear plugs, mechanically designed to only muffle certain pitches and sounds. Like that of a hand-gun. Canary glances back at Alice through her clear, thick glasses that were normally worn during shooting practice.

"Maybe," Canary says back as she continues to fire until the magazine is completely empty. She sets the gun down then and starts to remove her ear plugs. "Did you, I dunno, need something?"

"You and Matthew, you're friends right?" Canary snorts and Alice wonders was that is all about and from Canary's body language, Alice has a feeling that she's about to find out.

"We're barely on speaking terms as of lately," she says back as she removes the clear glasses ans tosses them down. "He's got some issues."

"I'm not insinuating that you guys were an item or something," Alice says, almost wryly "but the whole issues thing is what I wanted to ask you about." Canary's vision instantly shot to Alice. She tried to refrain from letting her eyes go wide.

"Do you know?" Canary asks, wondering how on earth Alice could have possibly found out that Matthew was a hybrid. Canary assumed that was what she was getting at.

"Yeah, he makes it pretty clear every single night," Alice says, a little annoyed, but also with that still small hint of concern. Canary holds a nervous squeak down in her throat.

"Well, I'm sure you know why he might have been apprehensive to tell everyone," Canary says lowly and a little quieter than she meant to. Alice put her hands on her hips and scoffed.

"Duh, seems to me like a guy like him doesn't exactly want that known to everybody," Alice says, not blaming Matthew for the secrecy.

"Well... He told me he doesn't want anyone to know.. that he's-"

"Got an anxiety problem, I know," Alice cuts in and Canary's expression totally changes from apprehensive, to astonished.

"Wait, what?" She says, pretty surprised "anxiety?"

"Yes," Alice sighs, exasperated "what did you think we were talking about?" Canary quickly shakes herself out of it. Alice didn't know he was a hybrid, that was a good thing, though Canary knew she almost blew it and felt like and idiot. She also knew that she could still blow it if she didn't come up with something to say. Fast.

"I just.. didn't think it was so bad that it could be considered an anxiety disorder that's all," Canary says, trying to avoid saying it so quickly that it was seemed rehearsed or forced. Alice seemed to buy it and Canary felt a small wave of relief.

"Trust me, I can hear the guy whimper and whine in his sleep almost every night and last night I found him curled up, barely breathing. It just seems like he's got all the signs, ya know?"

"Yeah, um, I guess- Wait," Canary cuts off crossing her arms and raising a question eyebrow displeasingly "if you caught him like that last night why didn't you do anything?" Alice scoffed and silently challenged Canary with her own body language. It was a very valid method of communication.

"It's not really my problem and I don't particularly care."

"Yet you'll tell me all about it?" Canary inquires and Alice rolls her eyes.

"Hey, I just want to be able to sleep. Or switch rooms, it's his problem," Alice claims indignantly "do whatever you want with the information." Alice begins to walk off and Canary shakes her head with a subtle grin.

"Ya know," she says after Alice "you act like a real bitch, but you wouldn't have said anything if you didn't care at least a little." Alice paused for one single moment, cursing herself for doing so, then she picked up her pace again and left the room.

Adam was reluctant to have to leave all of the kids back at S.H.I.E.L.D after a little less than a week, but he was called to a meeting in D.C to meet with the S.H.I.E.L.D council ASAP. He would be lying if he said he wasn't the least bit nervous. He'd only even met with Maria Hill as a S.H.I.E.L.D rep and don't even get him started on the Government controlled S.H.I.E.L.D, better known to some as S.W.O.R.D. Adam had opted to fly there by airlines, rather that fly there himself and carry whatever luggage he'd packed with him for several hours.

* * *

Adam landed precisely two hours earlier at 8:00 and was expected to be at the meeting by 8:00 am tomorrow, though he planned on being late. He didn't understand what was so damn important that he had to be in D.C for and why the hell they couldn't of just given him a freaking phone call. Adam assumed the meeting would cover menial things like How HYDRA infiltrated S.H.I.E.L.D, Why Baron Zemo was involved and How they were going to track down the rest of HYDRA. The reason menial is used in this instance is because Adam is pretty sure none of those S.H.I.E.L.D executives have the answers and he painfully sure that he will be questioned on several matters regarding his actions, namely when he received a recruitment invite from HYDRA. Adam certainly wasn't looking forward to that. Adam had stopped at a bar back in NYC, Josie's, he thought it was called; in a little district known as Hell's Kitchen. Misty served him as she usually did and gave him some advice on dealing with those kinds of people and he gratefully accepted it. Misty had given him basic tips, namely "don't over use or completely lose eye contact. Look at the person that's talking to you only. Answers curtly and shortly. Single statements are usually best and finally act calm, collective and casual. Pretend like there isn't even a problem here."

Pretty good advice honestly, though Adam wasn't sure he could be in a room with former members of S.W.O.R.D and not lose his head. However, he figured it was worth a try to keep his temper reigned in. Lord only knows that if he didn't Matthew would most likely call him a hypocrite during any sort of training for a Long time afterwards if he found out. And to make things worse Adam was pretty sure Adeline was scared of him now, he didn't think he'd be allaying her fear any if he came back only to pack his bags for being kicked out for assault or worse sent back in electric-inhibiting-handcuffs. That was a sad possibility. Not to mention that Serena would most likely be mad at him for having to babysit longer than he'd asked her to. Adam honestly didn't care so much about that last part, Serena would get over it and he had no problems dealing with her and vise versa. What Adam did worry about was how these kids viewed him and he never thought he'd care and before all this he told himself he wouldn't get overly involved. He certainly Did Not expect that all to change so quickly.

Adam had gotten to his hotel room late last night and just because he was so lucky, his room was ambushed (sort of) by a few HYDRA agents who had stalked Adam all the way to D.C, stupidly he might add because he promptly killed them and then naturally his room was a mess. Adam wondered if it was too much to ask to just relax for once. Adam also left the hotel since it was clear he wouldn't be staying there now anyways and called S.H.I.E.L.D to clean up the mess.

Adam left for another hotel room. One not as fancy; one way more modest. Adam was a pretty simple guy. Rich, but simple. Besides, he really didn't want to draw attention to himself if he could help it. Adam fell asleep late last night after the events that transpired and he didn't sleep soundly, but in his experience it wasn't expected.

Adam attended the meeting the next morning, he was late of course and the board didn't exactly seemed pleased. Adam sat down without a word and gestured to the small group. "Well? Are we going to start or not?"

"We were suppose to start precisely 45 minutes ago," agent Weaver says sternly and with her tone Adam feels like he's back in high school being scolded by his old English teacher.

"I know," Adam says causally, despite himself. Before the two can start an argument already this early into the meeting, Director Coulson stands to grab everyone's attention.

"Maybe we should start then," he cuts in and moves back more to the large glass pad on the back wall that displayed several different things as he taps it. Adam had heard many things about Director Coulson and vise versa actually, but Adam had never met the man in person. He didn't seem nearly as... threatening as the Director of S.W.O.R.D aka the other S.H.I.E.L.D. "The council had decided," Coulson starts as he taps a few more things on the screen "that with given the prospect of recent events that the initiates of Project Next Avengers should be accelerated to phase 2. Effective immediately." There silence for only about half a second after that.

"Okay, let me just stop you right there," Adam says, holding a hand out and suddenly all eyes are on him.

"Excuse me?" Coulson says evenly.

"I know exactly what phase 2 entails. You thinks these kids are considered Mission Ready?" Adam laughs shallowly and pushes himself up from his seat. "Let me tell ya, you've got another thing coming."

"Agent Foster-" Agent Calderon starts, but is swiftly cut off.

"They got lucky at best and when I say lucky I mean to have escaped with their lives and even still I have a long list of injuries between them," Adam adds in heatedly.

"They have potential, Agent Foster," agent Weaver states firmly. Adam scoffs.

"You don't think I know that? Yeah, sure they do, but they're damn teenagers for Christs sake! They also have the potential to be lazy and ignorant and naive and the complete opposite of the kind of preparation that you'd expect them to have! This was a six year deal for crying out loud, three until they even got passed level one!-"

"Do you plan on coddling them forever, Foster?" Calderon speak up over Adam harshly "their little display against HYDRA proves that they don't need protection anymore! They have seen things from that organization that they can never come back from." Memories of S.W.O.R.D flash through Adam's minds eye and none are pleasant. Adam slams one hand down on the table.

"That is exactly my point!" Adam concurs "but you think that's going to drive them? It's only going to scar and scare them and they'll burn out just like your last precious Avengers! But hey, go ahead and make those mistakes right over again why don't ya?!" Agent Calderon also got to his feet, shoving his chair back in the process.

"So far they only mistake S.H.I.E.L.D has made so far is hiring you!" Calderon snaps angrily and has the statement partly directed at Coulson. Adam laughs lowly and almost dangerously. He's noticed by now that he's thrown all forms of calmed diplomacy and discussion out the window, but now he really doesn't care.

"Agent Calderon-" Coulson starts but even he is cut of in the heat of the argument.

"The man even acts like a child whenever he doesn't get his way! We should release-"

"Oh, so you're going to what? Fire me? Go right ahead, let's see how many project initiates you have left when you do," Adam harshly interjects. Agent Calderon glares at Adam after the statement.

"Is that a threat, Agent Foster?"

"I'm fine if you take it that way," Adam snaps right back, which nearly puts Calderon in his place. Agent Calderon was an aggressive man and sometimes ignorant, but not by any means stupid. There had been rumors that the half-Asgardian was slightly unhinged and Calderon didn't exactly want to put it to the test as of now.

"Okay! Everyone just stop!" Shouts the last S.H.I.E.L.D executive board member, the one who had yet to speak. She to rose to her feet. "This is getting us nowhere," she says now in a quieter, calmer tone.

"She's right," Coulson says after Agent Johnson "the decision is not open to negotiation... The terms are." Adam leans back, moving his hands off the table and looking almost oddly at Coulson. Agents Weaver and Calderon however don't look as pleased. Coulson gestures to the chair behind Adam and the demi-god promptly sits down again and so do the other participants in the room after a minute. "Now," Coulson begins once again "phase 2 entails a lot of isolation and personal, specialist training."

"But more than half of these kids don't even know the fundamentals yet," Adam says, albeit in a tone and manner much calmer to that previously.

"Precisely," Coulson adds as he taps a few more things on the screen "which is why I suggest that they be taught strategically from the bottom up, but on the path of whatever chosen skills or specialty that has been arranged for." Adam sat back in his chair and just simply nodded. Calderon himself looked marginally stunned by the reprieve in Adam's argument. Adam only shrugs coyly. Director Coulson was and incredibly agreeable man.

"I suggest the whole moving them to a isolated, secure base in the middle of nowhere thing should be vedo'd," Adam comments, but it's shot down by another agent.

"How are they expected to focus on the task at hand otherwise? These are very difficult tasks and for children I suspect will be even more trying," agent Weaver protests.

"They are just kids, Anne," says agent Johnson "it's not like we own them, we can't ship them around as we please." Adam is so relieved that it seems like Director Coulson and Agent Johnson are on his side and they are both quickly earning his respect.

"Fair enough," agent Weaver agrees at agent Johnson's fair point "but with their schooling- I mean, I hate to even say that education is a distraction, but the kind that they receive at a public school is-"

"Inadequate, I know," Coulson interjects "which is why I purpose the idea of one of our various S.H.I.E.L.D organized academy's. Agent Foster?" Coulson says after, posing a question to him subtly. Adam understands it loud and clear though.

"Their first few weeks at their current school didn't go very well, I think they'd be open to it, well, if I pitched it right."

"Good," says Coulson, hoping they could move onto to this next matter without starting a battle royal inside the base. "Last order of business; Active Duty." Adam tenses instantly, but he promises himself this time that he won't lose his cool.

"Sorry Sir, but just surveying the work of agents on active duty almost got them buried in the ground," Adam states and agent Johnson cringes, even though Adam's not really sure why "they aren't ready."

"I know," says Coulson in a tone and with a look that tells Adam that no matter what he'd like to do he has to compromise somehow and Adam doesn't think he's understood a man of power so well in his entire life. "I propose that until they've received adequate training and tactical knowledge they will be merely there as an observer or minor agent, always sided with a high level S.O." Adam can at least somewhat agree to that if nothing else. "Are we in agreement?"


	26. Episode 12 (Starting Out Pt 2)

"Well, at least everything went smoothly," Maria Hill says sarcastically to Adam when he finally arrives back at the housing at S.H.I.E.L.D and he is currently in his own room- observatory- unpacking.

"To be fair this was a major change of plans and no one bothered to consult those kids," Adam snaps back as he pulls his laptop out of his bag.

"I didn't agree with it, okay? Calderon is the sort that almost demands instant gratification and results and Weaver, well I think she just likes to experiment."

"With peoples lives apparently," Adam mutters. "Again kids on missions. Have you learned nothing from my own insanity?" Adam emptied his bag and tossed it on the floor.

"They'll be in the best of hands," Maria assures, ignoring his last statement. Adam still grumbled under his breath. Maria sighs and look down for a moment and her eyes stop and train on something. Her owns narrow and she tenses and glares incredibly distastefully. She bends over to pick the item up. "Interesting tastes, Foster," she practically snaps as she holds up the small lacy pair of underwear. "I wonder how that could have possibly gotten in with your stuff," she hisses lowly. Adam sits back on his bed, creating some distance between them and opting not to says anything as he can tell Maria is extraordinarily displeased. "This," she says harshly, holding the small garment up "this does not happen! Especially around children for Christs sake. First excessive drinking now this?"

"At least I did cut back on the alcohol," Adam mutters, but other than that stays mainly silenced.

"If I catch you doing anything like this again around any of them you'll be suspended from active duty and you'll take your leave from the base. You can do whatever the hell you want on your own time, but you better have a damn clear head whenever you walk through these doors. Understood?"

"Yes, Ma'am."

"Why even go there?" Maria asks, still a bit heated otherwise she would have let it be. Adam stayed silent, unwilling to answer, but not like before. This wasn't a child like silence whereas you stay quiet to avoid further punishment, this was a more painful silence and Maria being as skilled as she was didn't miss it. "Hm?"

"The last time I recall S.H.I.E.L.D being invaded like that, _she_ was with me." Maria nodded and kept her head down. Of course he was still hung up on her. It's not like they'd just simply went their separate ways, she was murdered and Adam was nearly as well.

"Just keep clean, alright. No more bad examples. Not for them."

* * *

"Ya know, I think I really should be more excited about this, but..." James trailed off as he looked over the debriefing files on his tablet with some of the others in the living room.

"After last week I don't think any of us are as enthusiastic," Canary comments "it's just wrong somehow."

"How are any of us actually up to this?" JP says blatantly "I mean come on, I got shot, Adam got poisoned, Adeline busted up her whole leg, Rori even got a concussion and she barely did anything! And that's just the stuff I know about."

"Touché," says James as he slumps back into the couch, putting his tablet down next to him.

"It gets better," Canary adds sarcastically "how many of you read the part about changing schools?"

"Wow, we're getting booted out after only one month, that's got to be a new record for me," JP chimes in wryly.

"We're so stupid," Canary nearly whines, but it turns into a defeated sort of sigh "for months we were ranting about how all we wanted was to go on missions, but once we actually had one none of us could stand up to the pressure of it."

"Again, touché," James says and that's about it. Canary doubts that half of the kids here were ready to get back to it. Even she was unsure, though she hated to think of herself as someone who gave up when things started to get harder. It was wrong and she knew it but still she knows in the back of her mind that she'd considered quitting and she also believes that they all had. Canary was most concerned about Matthew wanting to leave. He'd wanted to leave before any of the HYDRA mess and Canary was pretty sure that was mostly in regards to being a hybrid, but she couldn't tell for certain. She did hear the other suspicions about him leaving, it was pretty clear that he never wanted to be here anyways like all of the others who jumped on the opportunity 100%. Matthew was roped into all of this because his powers were so strong and with his young age S.H.I.E.L.D probably would have been more than apprehensive to let him get away. Canary knew this now but didn't before.

* * *

Much later that night Canary finds herself outside of Matthew's door. She had already paused at the spot several times today whilst simply walking by, but now she'd finally worked up the courage to just get it over with. Canary knocked on the door. "Hey," she says lightly from beyond the iron sliding door "can.. Can I come in?"

"It's not locked," comes the response nearly a minute later. Canary holds down the button and the door slides open. She doesn't move in much further than the door way and the door swooshes closed behind her. Canary's breath catches in her throat as she see's Matthew rummaging through his desk drawers, removing things from it.

"I just wanted to-" she starts with a bit more confidence, but Matthew shatters it by cutting her off.

"I know what you're here about. Same as last week, right?" He says, still piling things up on his desk.

"Not exactly," she starts as she watches him pile the various things and she wonders if he's starting to pack. Looks like it.

"What do you want?" He asks in an unenthusiastic tone of voice. Canary stuffs her hands into the pockets of her worn out dark green hoodie.

"I should have never went searching, I should have just left it and you alone. I didn't get what it meant before and I was just being nosy. I know what happened during the fight, what you had to do, and why everyone blames your actions on your hybrid title.. If I were you I honestly wouldn't want anyone to know either," Canary stammers and rambles through her apology. Matthew pauses from what he's doing, but doesn't make eye contact with her. "I would wipe all of the memories away if I could, but I can't. I'm sorry." Matthew presses his hands down on the desk, sighs out deeply once before he turns to look at Canary.

"Why are you apologizing to me?" Canary toys with on of the silver rings on her finger.

"I wanted to have the chance to say it and all," she says lowly, still playing with her jewelry "what you're doing right now. Packing. You're leaving, aren't you?" Canary lifts her eyes back up to meet Matthew's. Matthew purses his lips and then shakes his head almost incredulously.

"What? No, I'm not going anywhere," he affirms and Canary quirks an eyebrow, looking a bit more astonished than she probably should.

"But I thought that- After Baron Z- And with all of S.H.I.E.L.D's new rules- That you were gonna-" Canary cut herself off of her stammering for her own sake.

Matthew moves back into the room to sit down on the end of his iron framed bed. "I thought about it, leaving, ya know," he starts and Canary nods. They all did and she knew that. "But I don't really have anywhere else to go." That statement strikes Canary pretty hard. She knew for a fact that he had two parents, one being home almost full-time. She knew this, admittedly, from when she looked into his files, but then he said he had nowhere to go and she opted to avoid opening that can of worms.

"Neither do I," Canary says openly as she too sits down on the edge of the bed and grips the iron post. Matthew flashes a questioning look. One he most likely can't hide though he would have liked to. "I was at boarding school when S.H.I.E.L.D picked me up. My parent's kicked me out so to speak."

"What did you do?" Matthew asks, figuring if she knows his biggest secret he can know a few of hers.

"Well, it all started when I told them I was a Bi-sexual," Canary says wryly, and it causes Matthew to grin, though she's not joking in the sense that she was in fact gay. "My parents were hardcore agents and my Mom was pretty strict when it came to that sort of thing."

"They.. sent you to military school because you're Bi?" Matthew asks quizzically, pretty surprised about that in this day and age. Canary makes a face and shakes her head.

"No! No, it wasn't really that," she says with a mild laugh which ends in a deeper sigh "the world is pretty crazy and not matter how nice it seems to look on the surface, weird shit is forever going down. I think my parent's just wanted me to be ready for that."

"I think they'd be proud then," Matthew says leaning back into the many pillows "just look at you hanging out with the weirdest meta-human around." Canary rolls her eyes but grins. She nudges Matthew.

"Oh come on. There are probably much weirder people than you... probably." Matthew snorts.

"What a pair we make, a militant, closet-bi-sexual superhero and a secret hybrid, possibly bipolar kid kicking back." Canary stifles her laughter so that it's not full blown. It just didn't seem like the appropriate time. Canary recomposes herself to being mainly serious again.

"I am sorry."

"Ya know, it's actually okay," he says and surprises the hell out of Canary "at least someone I trust knows about it and honestly with all the crazy shit we're about to start doing I, uh, could really use someone in my corner."

* * *

"Dude, we are all S.H.I.E.L.D agents now," Rori says from where she's lounging on the couch in the living room with all the others excluding Adam "we need alias'."

"Like superhero names?" James inquires. Rori giggles.

"A very cliche' way of putting it, but sure, let's just go with that," she says with a small wink. James shrugs.

"Don't we already have the Avengers old alias' chosen for us?" JP says, poking his head out of the fridge momentarily when he was trying to find a soda. He frowns when he finds there isn't any and goes to check in the pantry in the other room, leaving the group.

"I refuse to use it," Rori says stubbornly. Adeline quirks an eyebrow.

"Why?" She questions and Rori scoffs.

"Because it's Iron _Man_ ," she huffs indignantly, whilst motioning with her hands over her small endowments.

"Oh," is all Adeline says, feeling somewhat like an idiot "but not all of them all that off. I mean, Scarlet Witch isn't too bad a name."

"Oh no, it's completely bad ass," Canary says joining in and walking into the room with Matthew trailing behind her. She'd managed to get the teenager out of his room and to just try and relax with the others for a little while. "But you're powers and appearance resemble silver and white," she demurs. Adeline tilts her head to the side and shrugs.

"You need something new, something that goes with your powers and appearance."

"I don't think that Fragile Princess would work," Alice says lowly and Adeline glares at her.

"That is nothing like me," she snaps irately.

"Just calling them like see them, cupcake," Alice retorts and all of the other occupants in the room suppress a groan as they realize that they'll likely have to sit through another infamous argument between the two of them. Many were surprised when Adeline instead but her tongue and stayed silent.

"Darlin', you are totally a saint," Canary comments into the awkward pause. Alice gives Canary a look, but Canary is easily equipped and able to shrug it off.

"Ya know that does give me a name idea," Rori says, though it goes unnoticed by the group. Her mind was actually working to find titles for all of them at this time.

"What do you think or costumes will be like? Because I've seen some old Captain America models in the museums and I don't want to look like a Halloween costumed dork," James says with a mild sour tone of voice.

"Probably black, spandex, kevlar, more black, leather, metallic, weapons packed and then with, go figure, more black," Matthew lists and some of them snicker.

"S.H.I.E.L.D does seem to have a thing for black," Canary states and they all know that it's ridiculously obvious. Even agents they've seen on their days off still ore only clad in black.

"That's an understatement," Alice quips. None of them say it, but this is nice. Being able to talk about their powers without judgement and be able to move to a completely different topic with no one questioning it. To Rori it felt like this could eventually be Home. It wasn't there yet, but it was getting there.

The door to the house opens and Maria Hill enters. It's later at night so they figure that she must need to tell them something and not a moment later does she start, getting right into it without any delay. "I have a last minute debriefing for Matthew Ross, Alice Belova and-" Maria stops when she hears someone's phone beep incessantly "Canary Morse," Maria says, raising an eyebrow as Canary's looking down at her phone. Maria moves about the room and plucks the small device from her hands. "What's this supposed to mean?" Maria asks when she see's the text is in the form of a text based picture with a small triangle and a car or vehicle above it. Matthew snickers despite himself.

"It's a road sign," is all he says coyly and then Maria sighs, getting the joke. The particular road sign meant _Hill Ahead_ and with her last name being Hill she got the pun, not that she found it very amusing. The kids couldn't help but notice she was acting way more stiff than usual, as if she were uncomfortable or about to do something she didn't want to.

"Anyways," she resumes swiftly, even though some of the kids still have grins on their faces "we have a recon mission beginning tomorrow. Miss Belova, Morse and Mr. Ross are signed on as observers for the mission. You're to leave in the morning at 08:00 hours."


	27. Episode 13 (Welcome to my World Pt 1)

_Previously on "Dangerous Games"..._

 _"Well... He told me he doesn't want anyone to know.. that he's-"_

 _"Got an anxiety problem, I know," Alice cuts in and Canary's expression totally changes from apprehensive, to astonished._

 _"Wait, what?" She says, pretty surprised "anxiety?"_

 _"Yes," Alice sighs, exasperated "what did you think we were talking about?" Canary quickly shakes herself out of it. Alice didn't know he was a hybrid, that was a good thing, though Canary knew she almost blew it and felt like and idiot. She also knew that she could still blow it if she didn't come up with something to say. Fast._

 _"I just.. didn't think it was so bad that it could be considered an anxiety disorder that's all," Canary says, trying to avoid saying it so quickly that it was seemed rehearsed or forced. Alice seemed to buy it and Canary felt a small wave of relief._

 _Skye was opposed immediately. "So it's decided then. We move Project Next Avengers to phase 2," Coulson declares and Skye looks sadly at him. Coulson shrugs defeated as if to convey that there's nothing he can do here._

 _"So that's that," Maria Hill says lowly and then ends the call and the screens fade back to black._

* * *

"So here's your schedules, if you need anything else just come back to the front office," said the female secretary of the very large private school. The woman was actually a S.H.I.E.L.D agent and this school was actually like a estranged high school way station for future agents or other future protegé's. Rori was sure that they had some sort of acronym for all that since S.H.I.E.L.D seemed to have an obsession with them. James, Adeline Rori and JP were all getting started at their new school, which already seemed both more inviting and intimidating simultaneously. All four of the teenagers walked out of the administrations building and out onto the small campus where they'd finish high school and possibly university if they so chose.

"Why do I feel like everyone is looking at us," Rori murmurs quietly and self-consciously to her friends.

"I'm pretty sure that's because they are," JP says and Adeline elbows his lightly in the side when she catches Rori's nervous glances, movements and thoughts. Rori liked to play the attention whore and to be fair she played it very well, but in all reality she really liked to keep to herself most of the time. She was introverted in the sense that she generally liked to stay within her small group of friends.

"You think they know about HYDRA?" James asks lowly as he looks down at his schedule.

"It's possible," JP deadpans. Adeline sighs and keeps her head down, reading all the different classes she has and their respective buildings. She falls behind a little from the other three and bumps into some other girl. Adeline glances up and catches the girls blue eyed glare. Adeline shrinks in on herself even more. The silver haired teen then quickly moves to catch up with her friends. When she glances back she saw the blonde haired girl still had her eyes trained on her. Adeline could feel her eyes on the back of her neck, the icy glare sending shivers down her spine.

"I didn't think that I'd actually be jealous of Matt, Alice and Canary today," Adeline breathes uneasily. Rori nods and responds dryly.

"Ditto."

_Dangerous Games_

"Agents," greets a 30-something female S.H.I.E.L.D agents. Apparently their primary supervisor.

"Agents, huh?" Canary resounds, trying it out. The woman gives Canary an odd sort of look and the corners of her lips twitch with amusement.

"Not yet, kid," says a young male agent maybe just barely 30, probably a bit younger by judgement of his general appearance, the way he carries himself, and facial features. He sounds more amused than the other agent and way more obvious about it. "I'm agent Todd and the lovely lady to my left is agent Lanning." Canary looks between the two, wondering if they're and item or something.

"What are we even supposed to be doing out here?" Alice asks not know where exactly they are, but knowing that they've been airborne in this dated quin-jet for a little over and hour.

"This is simply a recon mission," agent Lanning states "HYDRA, the very few that managed to escape, smuggled some intel out with them as well. They're very small in number and haven't managed to make to any suspected HYDRA bases even close to the vicinity, so it should be a quick and easy mission. Several agents will go in to take the escapees and another team will recover the intel. Have I made everything clear?" She asks, eyeing Matthew in particular since he has yet to speak and has been completely silent for the better part of their hours journey.

"Recover the intelligence drives, take down HYDRA, go home," Matthew deadpans and agent Lanning seems a little off-put by his demeanor, but leaves it be for now.

"Touch down in five," says the co-pilot. Agent Todd turns back to the kids after nodding to the man.

"You guys will be with Lanning and I for surveillance and last resort emergency back-up if need be," agent Todd informs and Alice doesn't know why this warm feeling in her chest occurs when she finds that S.H.I.E.L.D main goal right now, despite being put into mission situations unwillingly, is still to keep them safe. Alice quickly dismissed that feeling. Despite what Adam had said about the meeting, it still didn't dismiss the fact that they still opted to put children in mortal danger. She really thought that S.H.I.E.L.D needed a morality check. Alice walked over to the far back of the quin-jet and stayed there away from the others. Agent Lanning frowned. She could already tell that this whole event was going to be a difficult outing today.

Matthew was sitting down on one of the seats off to the side. He was pretty nervous for the mission, even though her was pretty sure that they wouldn't have to fight anyone, but in still worried him that on the off chance that he did was he going have to what he did to... Baron Zemo. There was an impossibly tangled string of thought in his head that simply couldn't be unraveled. The feeling and thoughts that came with knowing that you've taken away a life. A human life. Even if that human was was horrible and trying to take others lives, did that make it right? Was there a right when taking a life was involved? But if you were killing to protect someone else's life then was it different? Adam claimed it was just the balance of things. How things were just supposed to go and Adam had told Matthew that's what he's learned, but some considered Adam a murderer. Someone who killed without remorse or thought as long as their actions were against him. Matthew wasn't sure if he'd believed that. Matthew had decked Adam when they'd first met, did a number on him to, but Adam never fought back and only tried to talk Matthew down. Adam only resorted to violence when there was no other choice, because Matthew was hurting himself.

Canary had sat down next to Matthew, momentarily interrupting his thoughts. She smiled reassuringly at him. Canary knew that Matthew was doing much better mentally since the initial shock of killing the Baron. Canary was sure he'd thought about it a lot, but it wasn't panicking him to the point of isolation anymore. Canary placed a hand over his shaking hand and showed him the mission details on her new tablet, since her old one had been broken. Matthew still zoned out part way through despite Canary's efforts to distract him. Matthew had to wonder; when had Adam first killed? What makes people he's a murderer?

* * *

 _9 years ago..._

Adam sat at the kitchen table after school. He was nearing fifteen and had just finished his first year of high school. Despite that, however, his mother must have still thought that he needed a babysitter for some reason because a close family friend, Erik Selvig, was over at the house that afternoon. Maybe that had something to so with the indoor thunderstorm he had started last week. It wasn't that Adam minded all that much. Erik was a nice guy, he was as close to a grandfather as Adam had and had been around for all of the demi-gods life. Ever since Adam's dad had... left Erik and Aunt Darcy had been around quite frequently. Okay so Darcy wasn't at all in relation to Adam, but when Adam was very young Darcy had insisted that he call her that. Erik and Jane, Adam's mom, had told him it was better not to argue and so he didn't.

Adam ate a snack and tried to work on his homework. Tried being the key word since algebra equations completely sucked, but there wasn't much he could do about it accept fail and Adam was sure his mother wouldn't approve of that. Adam munched away and worked silently, so did Erik, but on something much more advanced and of his own. There was a knock at the door, which was odd because the only people to ever come to the observatory, where Adam lived, was Darcy and Jane, who never knocked anyways, and Erik, but he was already here. Erik had a skeptical look about him and got up, pushing his seat back to go check it out. Erik looked out the glass window at the very top of the door, his expression became tense and he quickly fumbled over the lock and pried open the door. "What do you want?" He practically growled and that caught Adam's attention. He'd never really seen Erik seem angry before. Adam leaned back in his chair, to peek through to the front hallway. There were two men wearing dark, expensive looking suits. The both flashed a badge, but this only proved to push Erik further.

"We represent S.W.O.R.D with the American government. We received intelligence that there's an unregistered meta-human in residence here," said one of the men very matter-of-factly.

"I don't know what you're talking about," Erik snapped back "and you're trespassing your boundaries here."

"Yes," started the other man "we know whose former residence that this was and don't get so defensive. We're not here to take the boy away, he's on the list of recruitment, we need his help." That's when Adam too became tense. They were talking about him. The young half god got up and slowly approached the other room.

"Recruitment list? By the gods, he's only a kid!" Erik exclaims.

"This is a matter of global security," says the first man. Erik scoffs.

"That only proves my point further!" He shouts defensively, but the men seem less than fazed.

"Erik?" It was Adam's voice. All eyes were on him for a moment. One of the agents gaze turned back to Erik.

"The world is at risk-"

"And what exactly did You do to put it there?" There was no fooling Erik. There was definitely something up. Adam had been left alone thus far, though S.W.O.R.D must have known about him. It angered Erik to think that they'd put a child on reserve.

"S.W.O.R.D is dedicated to the safety of our world," recited one of the agent. Erik scoffed again.

"How can you even say that while looking me in the eye?" The agents looked at each other and them pushed a side of their jackets back to reveal their guns on the two holsters on their waists.

"We don't want to have to use force, really. We're just trying to protect everyone."

"By sending a child to fight for you," Erik finished sourly, but his voice is much quieter.

"I'll go," says Adam over them, afraid that Erik might get hurt if this continues. Erik stares wide eyes back at Adam and shakes his head, but the agents are already pushing past to grab Adam and escort him away. "Wait!" Said Adam quickly as he ran back up to his room. The agents followed after him, fearing he was trying to escape. Adam only, quickly, shoved things into his backpack, including a ring with a gold colored jewel.

"What's that?" Asked one of the agents.

"Something I might need," Adam answers lowly. The agents glance at each other, then take Adam away with them.

* * *

"So just to finalize and recap," says the female chemistry teacher "all elements with the atomic number being over 84 is naturally unstable as well as an uneven ration of both protons or neutrons-" the bell rang, cutting her off. Many of the students got up quickly, grabbing their things and heading out to lunch, which most of them were desperate for. Rori, however, was still sat down at her desk, avidly taking notes. The chemistry teacher looked over at her, almost confused. She pushed a strand of brunette hair out of her face and walked over. She pulled a desk chair over from the one in front of Rori's desk and flipped it around so that is was facing her. "Is there something you're stuck on?" Rori shook her head.

"No, Miss. I was just trying to mark down all the things that translate from the periodic table to the quickest radioactive decay. Ya see, if I don't write it all down then I'll probable forget it. I am very scatter-brained sometimes." The teach grinned and almost laughed.

"I see. I wish all of my new students were as motivated as you."

"Well, Adam- my S.O, I guess- is already in a bad mood, I'd rather not make it worse by flunking." The teacher dismissed the fact that it was clear that Rori had gotten the highest grade out of the entire class for now.

"Adam? As in Adam Foster?" Rori looked up at the teacher and away from her notes.

"Yeah, do you know him?" She asks.

"Yeah, I, um, used to when he was still working for S.W.O.R.D." Rori drops her pen and tightens her jaw otherwise it would have fallen open.

"Adam worked for S.W.O.R.D?" Rori inquires incredulously. The teacher rubs her hands over her legs slowly and inhales once.

"Not worked, per say. It's a really long story."

"Longer to explain than a full lunch period?" The teacher looked quizzically at the girl "even the short version?" The teach sighed and relented.

"Well, it was about 8 or 9 years ago I think."

* * *

The plane had landed precisely twenty minutes ago. All coms were up and agents Todd and Lanning were still stationed inside with the kids, running ops from the mobile base. "Bravo team, whats the story upstairs?" Says agent Todd into the mic.

"Negative on floor 3."

"Beta?" Asks agent Lanning.

"We've got something a bit more interesting. Their packing in here, that's for sure." Agent Lanning looks at agent Todd sternly and nervously.

"They're packing weapons?"

"All kinds. It's like a gallery down here. Some pretty weird and dangerous."

"Pack it all up," orders agent Todd "it's a bad thing if HYDRA uses any of these."

"Copy that," answers the agent. The small group in the mobile base hears some background noise from the com. "Found a straggler!" "Don't let...the!" "AHHGGG!"

Things became tense after that. Red alert. "Agent Walker?" Agent Lanning says quickly through the mic "agent Walker do you copy? Walker! Vincent?!" No answer. The com sounded fuzzy and that was about all they could hear, except a dripping noise. The static go worse right before they heard the words.

"Hail HYDRA."


	28. Episode 13 (Welcome to my World Pt 2)

**Sorry not everything I wanted to put in here is in here. I've been so busy lately and haven't been able to finish every scene I wanted. It'll all make sense it just won't be what I intended exactly.**

* * *

 _9 years ago..._

Adam had slept that night inside a room provided for him by the S.W.O.R.D agents. Now he was at a meeting with the higher up of this S.W.O.R.D base. They were telling him about the mission. From Adam could deter of what they were saying, it seemed like S.W.O.R.D had been into far too many things than they should have.

A year ago, S.W.O.R.D had begun a project to build a synthetic Bifrost, which on it's own seemed stupid and dangerous enough, but research they added to it was done in part by HYDRA back then they were in possession of the mind stone. Even more dangerous. But worst yet was the fact that they had tested in a civilian populated city. New York. Opening it wasn't the problem, closing it was. All kinds of monsters and creatures were jumping through. Something was holding the portal open once they tried to close it. It was impossibly stupid of S.W.O.R.D to just try and open a portal anywhere with no actual direction and now the entire world might pay for it if the monsters that came through were to leave the S.W.O.R.D compound and rampage New York city. Millions could die and they were betting it's safety on a young boy. A teenaged, half-Asgardian kid. Many agents thought that they were doomed, but the higher ups thought that a child of two worlds might be able to close the bridge. They only prayed that they were right.

Adam had been sent in with a party of agents, but he was quickly left alone. The first monster struck and Adam was the only survivor.

The young half god choked and sputtered as the smoke had just begun to clear some. The monster that had attacked had been massive, at least ten feet tall, with veins like multant lava dripping from it's eyes and smoking out of it's pours. The creature had skin line hard unshaped swung it's long limbs around aimlessly, obliterating everything in it's wake. The agents had, at first, tried to protect the boy, but as the flames of the situation burned brighter the agents began to act for themselves. However, Adam was able to scramble away and escape the monster through a small crack in a heavy iron wall that was too tiny for the creature to follows him through, though Adam was sure that it would still find a way to bypass it and he wasn't going to stick around and wait for it to do so.

Adam made his way through corridor after corridor. Desperate to try and find the Convergent (the name of the bifrost replicant device). Although he was sure that there'd be more aggressive and destructive monsters closer to the Convergent device. Adam still stumbled along with no clue on what he was looking for.

"All coms are down. Something hit them and it hit them hard," agent Todd exclaimed as be threw down his radio in anger.

"We've got to call in back up-" agent Lanning started before she's cut off by Todd's rage.

"By the time they get here HYDRA will have been long gone!" He booms back and none of the kids would have guessed that he was the type that became crossed like this.

"Well, what other options do we have, huh?!" Lanning shouts back at him and Todd bites his tongue and scowls, kicking a piece of machinery in the jet.

"You have one," Alice says lowly and thickly accented. Todd and Lanning look over and the ginger haired girl standing in front of them.

"Actually you've got three," Canary adds, getting up from her seat and standing next to Alice. Todd and Lanning look at each of the kids in turn, with question and worried expressions and more so under the surface, wondering if they're crazy. They look to the two girls and they look scared, but sure standing along side oneanother. Matthew stays back from them, but nods assuredly with no visible fear, though they're sure that he's suppressing it all inside.

"We won't be responsible for getting you all killed," agent Lanning exclaims firmly.

"We beat HYDRA once," Canary retorts indignantly.

"You said it yourself that you got lucky," agent Todd adds in, backing his partner up. Canary looks near exasperated. People could be being tortured or even killed inside that hideout and while this should have frightened her beyond belief, especially since she was suggesting that she now go inside, it just made her angry. The whole ordeal.

"And those agents might not be," Matthew adds, surprisingly. Neither of the girls expected him to speak up, but so it was.

"You'd walking right into a death trap," agent Todd tries again, but the kids don't seem any more shaken.

"We were last time," Alice deadpans.

* * *

"I swear to go she is still looking at me," Adeline says as she leans forwards onto the lunch table, shielding her face with her hand.

"Maybe she has a thing for you," JP says with a shrug. James' lips crook awkwardly. "Come on," JP starts "you're not seriously homophobic, are you?"

"No..." James says, but trails off.

"That's ridiculous," JP says indignantly, rolling his eyes.

"She is seriously creeping me out," Adeline says shakily. James motions for Adeline to get up and he switches seats with her so that he's blocking the odd girls view of her. "Thank you."

"Hey, anyone seen Rori?" JP asks as he checks his phone to see if she'd texted him back.

"Nada," the blonde boy answers and he pushes his food around on his tray.

"I'm sure she's just off flirting with some senior guy," Adeline points out.

"That's so weird," James scoffs "she's only, what, fourteen?" JP laughs and nearly snorts his soda out his nose. Adeline gives him an exasperated expression as if to say, sarcastically, _very classy_.

"If I didn't know any better I'd say that you had a little crush on her." James looks off into space for a moment before shaking his head and forking some more of his bland lunch food.

"You don't know better." JP groans and leans back in his plastic chair.

"I don't know why it was Addie who got the whole mind reading gig," he says with a mild pout.

"Because you'd be a mental pervert with no regard for privacy or dignity," Adeline deadpans as she pushes some of the mashed potato's around on her tray. They'd long gone cold and the gravy had begun to congeal.

"There is that," JP says, not even trying to deny it because they all know that it's true. A pair of kids walked passed them and stare as they walk by. Adeline resists the urge to slam her hands down on the table.

"I can't stand being stared at like I'm something deformed!" Adeline exclaims, but keeps her tone nice and low. JP and James just stare at her oddly. She wasn't really one for out-bursts. Although them staring only made Adeline angrier. "Now you two are doing it!"

"I think you need to chill-" James starts, but Adeline just gets up, leaves her tray and walks out of the cafeteria and much to Adeline's dismay the girl also walked out.

Adeline walked out into the mostly empty halls. She looks at all the iron lockers, pad locked even, and cannot for the life of her remember which one belongs to her. Adeline keeps her eyes trained on the lockers and only stops when she hears a giggle. Rori's to be precise. Adeline back traces and peeks into the classroom were the teacher is regaling Rori about something. The silver haired girl just stops and listens for a while.

* * *

 _9 years ago..._

And so the flaming beast caught up with Adam. It was a long, long fight, one that left the teenager beaten badly. Bad enough to leave him down. Blood poured from a wound in his stomach. There were other cuts littering his body, though he had been lucky, in a sense, that all of the other blows had been cauterized by the heat of the monsters exterior. So there the half-god laid, now that he was close to the center of the Convergent portal he could hear the cries of all sorts of different demons and beats, all which would surely be upon him soon. Though the boy never would have guessed that it would have been and angel that found him first.

She was by far the most beautiful person Adam had ever seen. Light illuminated out of her very pours, she looked like she was from another time almost by her manner of dress. She walked slowly across the floor, the heels of her shoes clacking against the hard concrete floors. Her facial features looked young, she had the appearance of someone just a bit younger than Adam himself. She knelt down beside him, the golden glow still adjourning her. She caresses her hand along Adam's cheek. The glow around her hand feels warm and calming. She holds her other hand over the large gash in Adam's gut. The glow surrounds it and then suddenly all of the pain washes away and amazingly, so does the blood. Though Adam still feels weak, at least he's not dying at the moment. "Do not worry, young prince, you will be alright. Your father sends you aid."

"M-my father?" Adam questions numbly. He thinks that that statement is impossible, that maybe he's hallucinating from all of the blood loss and maybe he is about to kick the bucket.

"A healer from the realm immortal." Adam shakes his head.

"Asgard.. was sealed off... Ragnorak-"

"Shh," she hushes lightly, placing a ghostly pale slender finger to his lips "the realms are entwined in ways mortals cannot understand, but not like this," she says gravely as she looks at the far wall, most likely in the direction of the Convergent "it has to be destroyed." She hastily pulls Adam to his feet and hands him the gold jeweled ring.

"Thank you," he says, still feeling a bit lagged from all that had previously happened, though she was trying to move things along quicker than humanly possible. "What's your name?" The dazzling girl looks back at him and answers.

"Lilith."

* * *

"So that's when he met Lilly," Adeline states from where she's sitting next to Rori in the classroom, being regaled by their, surprisingly knowledgeable, teacher. The teacher, Emily, looking quizzically at the girl. "I've heard him say her name in his sleep before." The teacher hums.

"I suppose he would have. He was very close with her." Rori's thin, strawberry blonde brows knit together in confusion.

"Past-tense?" The teacher nods and sighs.

"She died when he was eighteen," the teacher answers. Rori's expression falls pretty low. She shakes her head.

"No.. no, but I thought this was a love story. She can't just-"

"This isn't a fairy tale, Rori, sometimes we don't always get a choice," Adeline states negatively, which is out of character for her, but it's all too true.

* * *

 _Lilly had died quite some time ago. Emily only explained the minor details of her death, claiming that she didn't know anymore. Though what she did know was that Lilly wasn't who she claimed to be. She wasn't from Asgard, she was from Vannaheim and the reason she left wasn't to save Adam, it was to escape. Lilly was another being entirely. A half immortal known as a Nephilim. The Nephilim was an old race, bred for a specific purpose... to die._

 _Over a millennium ago a woman in Greece found and opened a strange box. Seems harmless. This box, however, contained the evil of Midguard. Once it was opened monsters and demons sprung forth and tormented the people. No army or psychical force could withstand this threat. There was only one thing that could, the thing that was placed inside the core of the box. Every hundred years on the day the box was first opened a Nephilim from each realm would sacrifice itself to the box, which some called purgatory, to preserve the only thing that could save the people: Hope. The woman who had opened the box had to pay for this since all the Nephilim were part human from her side and part immortal to the realm they hailed from._

 _Lilly and Adam sought to defy this fate, to keep her alive until after the day of Pandora had passed. Unfortunately, the universe always had other plans. The pair was found one day by Vannaheim soldiers that had made it onto Earth by residual energy from the Convergent, the same way Lilly had arrived. They fought to try and take Lilly back and Adam and Lilly tried to stop them. Eventually, Adam was wounded badly, so were the soldiers, but Adam was young, untrained and inexperienced. Eventually he would die. Lilly couldn't bear to have that happen and so when a soldier came at her, she barely defended herself._

 _"Lilly!" Adam shouted. The soldiers had backed off the moment that she had been stabbed through. Like cowards and moral less murders. Adam hadn't even made it to her before she had passed. Adam knelt down beside her and his knee's were soaked in blood already. She must have been pierced through the heart. A quick death. Her lifeless hazel eyes stared up at Adam with an unnerving emptiness. Adam, with a shaky hand, closed Lilly's eyes so that he wouldn't have to stare into them with only grief and shame. Adam's whole form was shaking with sheer pain and anger. This literally manifested into the worst into the worst hurricane Northern America had even seen. It was devastating and it had killed quite a few people, but the young man blinded by his rage didn't see any of the people he was hurting. Didn't for a long while after her death as well._

 _He lulled her into his arms as the storm continued. Eventually S.W.O.R.D came for Adam, apprehending him for being the threat he was. The threat S.W.O.R.D and forces of the other realms had created. They had given the Asgardian price reasons and ways to manifest his rage in ways unimaginable. He had killed So many people and inflicted so much violence for the injustice in his life. S.W.O.R.D had kept Adam as a weapon and a prisoner for two long years. Sometime during the second year a brave woman named Emily helped him escape, though she never would have guessed the damages that her actions would have brought. Adam had abused her affections and sympathy towards him to break free and exact his revenge. He had murdered the majority of the Northern S.W.O.R.D division, even those who had nothing to do with his capture had paid with their lives by affiliation with the group alone. It took quite some time before a day came where Adam stopped in his quest for violence for him to stop and look down at the blood all over his hands. It was there prominently, soaking him, drowning him , pulled him down into the red colored ravine that he had dug. Everyone he cared about was taken from his life and in response he took all the lives of those around him. He was a monster._

"I'm not professionally allowed to give you my opinion about all of this," Serena says lowly after Adam had finished explaining it all to her. It didn't take a mind reader to get the pain off of him, she could see it in his eyes and in his expression. Even the way he shifted and moved seemed tense and pained.

"I will only make these kids into monsters.. like me. I can't do this."

"Because it's hard or because you're scared?" Serena asks and Adam glares daggers at her, but she doesn't back down. Not for a single second.

"Just look at my track record. I've hurt the people around with for a pretty long fucking time!" He snaps angrily and remorsefully.

"Okay!" Serena says loudly over him. She throws down her clip board and rises up from her chair. "We have been at these sessions for over a year now and you have been tormenting yourself for way longer! It is time to _Let Go_!" Adam looks at her as if she had a second head. Craziness. "I know you carry her memory around with you," Serena announces, reading his mind even though she generally doesn't like to "in that globe, because having the images in your head is far too painful. You have the power, magic, to store your pain elsewhere and yet you place the object right over your heart."

"I don't deserve a clean slate, Serena."

"Neither did I," she breathes lightly "you think that you're the first meta-human who lost control? That killed people?.. No, not by a long shot, but you won't let yourself passed this. Lilly, she's gone, but these kids are in the here and now. Without you they haven't even got a shot."

"Believe me," Adam says "they don't need someone like me." He shakes his head sorrowfully. Wondering why the hell he even took this gig n the first place. "They need people like Samantha, Hill, you even." Serena lightly scoffs.

"I think you're only doing this because you care too much," she says openly to him "we were the same once upon a time, huh? You were a bleeding heart too, only yours was torn out. You won't let yourself too close because you think that if you care you'll lose them."

"Are you done with the psychoanalyzing bullshit?" He growls dangerously, but Serena only walks closer to him.

"You will lose them," she says and Adam looks furiously at her "if you don't help them. Someone saved you, now you have to go and save them." Adam shakes his head and the corners of his eyes burn and begin to brim with tears, though he wouldn't even let them fall.

"That's what she told me."

"I know," says Serena and then she holds her hand out "Let go, Adam." Serena moves her hand closer to him. Adam closes his eyes and makes no move to give the globe to her, but at the same time he doesn't stop her from reaching into the pocket of his jacket. Despite all Adam's efforts one single tear does escape. "Nobody's ever left us forever, Adam. The universe is cruel, but not heartless." Serena holds the gold globe up in her hands and uses her power to shatter the unique glass into pieces.


	29. Episode 14 (Someone Amiss Pt 1)

**Previously on "Dangerous Games"...**

 _"S.W.O.R.D is dedicated to the safety of our world," recited one of the agent. Erik scoffed again._

 _"How can you even say that while looking me in the eye?" The agents looked at each other and them pushed a side of their jackets back to reveal their guns on the two holsters on their waists._

 _"We don't want to have to use force, really. We're just trying to protect everyone."_

 _"By sending a child to fight for you," Erik finished sourly, but his voice is much quieter._

 _"I'll go," says Adam over them._

 _And so the flaming beast caught up with Adam. It was a long, long fight, one that left the teenager beaten badly. Bad enough to leave him down. Blood poured from a wound in his stomach. There were other cuts littering his body, though he had been lucky, in a sense, that all of the other blows had been cauterized by the heat of the monsters exterior. So there the half-god laid, now that he was close to the center of the Convergent portal he could hear the cries of all sorts of different demons and beats, all which would surely be upon him soon. Though the boy never would have guessed that it would have been and angel that found him first._

 _She was by far the most beautiful person Adam had ever seen. Light illuminated out of her very pours, she looked like she was from another time almost by her manner of dress. She walked slowly across the floor, the heels of her shoes clacking against the hard concrete floors. Her facial features looked young, she had the appearance of someone just a bit younger than Adam himself. She knelt down beside him, the golden glow still adjourning her. She caresses her hand along Adam's cheek. The glow around her hand feels warm and calming. She holds her other hand over the large gash in Adam's gut. The glow surrounds it and then suddenly all of the pain washes away and amazingly, so does the blood. Though Adam still feels weak, at least he's not dying at the moment. "Do not worry, young prince, you will be alright. Your father sends you aid."_

 _"M-my father?" Adam questions numbly. He thinks that that statement is impossible, that maybe he's hallucinating from all of the blood loss and maybe he is about to kick the bucket._

 _"A healer from the realm immortal."_

 _"Lilly!" Adam shouted. The soldiers had backed off the moment that she had been stabbed through. Like cowards and moral less murders. Adam hadn't even made it to her before she had passed. Adam knelt down beside her and his knee's were soaked in blood already. She must have been pierced through the heart. A quick death. Her lifeless hazel eyes stared up at Adam with an unnerving emptiness. Adam, with a shaky hand, closed Lilly's eyes so that he wouldn't have to stare into them with only grief and shame. Adam's whole form was shaking with sheer pain and anger. This literally manifested into the worst into the worst hurricane Northern America had even seen. It was devastating and it had killed quite a few people, but the young man blinded by his rage didn't see any of the people he was hurting. Didn't for a long while after her death as well._

 _He lulled her into his arms as the storm continued. Eventually S.W.O.R.D came for Adam, apprehending him for being the threat he was. The threat S.W.O.R.D and forces of the other realms had created. They had given the Asgardian price reasons and ways to manifest his rage in ways unimaginable. He had killed So many people and inflicted so much violence for the injustice in his life. S.W.O.R.D had kept Adam as a weapon and a prisoner for two long years. Sometime during the second year a brave woman named Emily helped him escape, though she never would have guessed the damages that her actions would have brought. Adam had abused her affections and sympathy towards him to break free and exact his revenge. He had murdered the majority of the Northern S.W.O.R.D division, even those who had nothing to do with his capture had paid with their lives by affiliation with the group alone. It took quite some time before a day came where Adam stopped in his quest for violence for him to stop and look down at the blood all over his hands. It was there prominently, soaking him, drowning him , pulled him down into the red colored ravine that he had dug. Everyone he cared about was taken from his life and in response he took all the lives of those around him. He was a monster._

* * *

Adeline coughed a few times, the dust entering her lungs was quite unwelcome. So was the ache of her body from laying on the cracked, uneven floor. She shook her head as she started to push herself up off the ground. Her fingers traced over a bump on her forehead, that was still throbbing. Adeline groaned and started to move her legs and feet properly and upwards until her foot collided with something hard. Adeline turned her head to the side and looked, although her vision was still blurry she could see the iron bars. Adeline gasped, but then coughed again due to the dust. She was imprisoned somewhere.

"I'm sorry," said an odd, mildly british-accented voice. Adeline scrambles to her feet and tries to locate the person from behind the bars. "You weren't meant to be brought here injured." Several questions buzzed through her mind: Who are you? Where am I? Why am I here? All of those seemed horribly cliche' though so the first thing to come out of Adeline's mouth was,

"Jackass." The statement actually surprised Adeline herself and she blinks a few times to try and clear her mind.

"Manners, please," says the voice and there is no venom behind his request seemingly leaving it at just that. A request only.

"I could be more polite if you'd let me out," Adeline says with some snark, something that had clearly rubbed off on her from Rori. Using snark to mask fear wasn't a completely bad tactic.

"Of course," he says lightly "but first we must reach some form of an.. Understanding."

"Do I even know you?" Adeline questions, still trying to find where the man is. She can hear light footsteps in the darkness beyond her, but can't actually see anything more than the occasional silhouette. She tries to use her powers to get a lock on his mind, to look through his eyes, but all she accomplishes to do is get a wicked headache. Like her powers were redirected and shot back at her full force.

"Yes and no." Adeline rubs her forehead, not really enjoying the psychical feeling of the outward pain of bruising and the inward pain of a raging migraine.

"Why can't anyone just get on with it?" She snaps, forcing the words out even though she'd rather stay quiet and curl up in the corner of the cell. Because that's such an attractive idea, Adeline thinks sarcastically to herself. She would roll her eyes, but that would hurt.

"Because it is an incredibly long story," says the man as he finally turns on a light. Adeline's eyes go wide and the light, albeit dim, still hurts her, but she can't help it. Him, this man, was a cyborg. Not just any: The Vision.

_Dangerous Games_

"No more blurry vision I hope," mutters Serena as she finishes cleaning the wound on Matthew's head and checking to make sure all of the stitches are still intact.

"It's pretty much gone," he answers from where he's laying on one of the gold couches in the living room of their living room at S.H.I.E.L.D.

"Good." Serena then finishes covering the wound with some gauze on that particular top part of his forehead, which was mostly hidden by his thick shaggy dark hair. Serena might have entirely missed it if it weren't for; A) the blood trailing down or, B) the fact that his pupils were dilated, proving that he had a concussion.

The kids had come back from a mission last night, that was supposed to be purely observation and educational, but ended up being on the front lines against a whole horde of HYDRA escapees. Agent Lanning and agent Todd were both pretty impressed with the kids fire, although they were inches away from cracking under the pressure, they all still made it out alive which was more than could be said for some other poor S.H.I.E.L.D agents. Serena was thankful that the kids injuries weren't so extensive. Canary had a broken ankle, a few broken fingers, but other than that it was just being a bit battered and bruised. Matthew had a concussion, had a sizable gash on his left side and a couple cracked ribs. The reason Serena had used the word had was because Matthew regenerated so quickly that even his bones got to work on mending themselves properly. Alice had gotten no more than a contusion bruise on her right wrist and a few cuts and bumps. According to Matthew, Canary, Todd and Lanning, Alice was remarkably good at playing her angles. Maybe even a little too good. Canary swore it was impossible to be that perfect. Everyone had something to hide.

"You all better get to bed," Serena says in a voice not unlike a mother's. There were mumbles of some agreement. They were all too battered and worn out to argue.

Matthew lay in bed, unable to sleep for some reason- Well, for some reason beyond the horrible burning pain that radiated through out his body whenever his regenerative powers booted-up. This was different. His skin was crawling in some strange form of anxiety and there was a subtle itch in the back of his mind, the annoying feeling of knowing you've forgotten something almost, only Matthew had no idea what that could be.

* * *

 _WHY THE HELL WOULD AN EX-AVENGER BE HOLDING ME HOSTAGE?!_ Adeline mentally shouted. A question that sadly couldn't be answered at this time.

The cyborg- The Vision moved to unlock the door to the cage. Adeline tried not to psychically show it, but she was getting ready to run like hell. She had heard of the Vision's unparalleled power before, but maybe, just maybe, she could cover enough ground to get out, or possibly get a message to her friends. Depending on how far she was she might be able to send out a mental message.

The Vision opened the gate and at first Adeline moved real slowly. She got to the gates edge and stood still for maybe about half a second. She threw her arm to the right and hit the unsuspecting cyborg with a blast of her abilities. Although maybe he did suspect it because he recovered remarkably fast. Adeline bolted out of the room, hoping and praying that the prospect of the Vision being able to intangibly pass through walls was a myth. Adeline turned down several hallways and felt like she was going in a never ending circle. Adeline was breathing hard, panicking and worrying that the Vision may be right on her heels. Despite the risk Adeline uses her power to levitate upwards to look out a high window, unfortunately all she can see is fog. Adeline starts to breathe harder and panic more and that was right before things got even worse. Adeline was tackled down, but not by the robot, but by some blonde haired girl clad in an all black suit. Adeline recognized the girl.

"You?!" Adeline cried incredulously. It was the strange stalked from her school. The girl didn't answer at all and instead tried to punch Adeline in the head, thus would be knocking her out. Adeline squirms and wriggles enough to avoid the girls blow. The girl raises her hand again to strike with another blow, but Adeline is just able to get one of her hands free and uses her powers to throw the girl back into a wall. Adeline scrambles to get to her feet and runs again.

The girl groans as she picks herself up off the floor and shakes her hands and neck out. "Didn't tell me the girl has chops,"she muttered as she took off in Adeline's direction at high speed.

Adeline continued to run down the halls. She honestly wasn't even paying attention to left or right anymore she was just running for her life. Adeline finally came to a set double doors and she hastily curled her finger around the knobs to try and force them open, but they wouldn't budge. Adeline could hear fast approaching footsteps behind her. The silver haired girl quickly backed up and used her powers to blow the doors open. Adeline ran out and was met with the darkness of night. It was so dark that her eyes had to adjust. She blinked a few times and was horrified to find that she'd only walked out onto a high balcony. She could see acres of land between here and even the road. The balcony was high up, at least three stories, but Adeline didn't really feel she had a choice. Adeline climbed up onto the railing and got to her feet on the thin, circular beam. Just as she had worked up the courage to jump the material of her shirt was grabbed and she was yanked back onto the balcony. "What are you crazy?!" The girl perusing Adeline questions astonished. Adeline tries to blast her again with her energy, but the girl dodges and trips Adeline expertly. The girl gets on top of Adeline expertly pinning her down and punches her once in the chest and then goes for her head again and the girl strikes her target.

 _"ADAM, HELP ME!"_

* * *

Adam meets with agents Hill, Todd and Lanning for a debrief on what the hell actually happened, in Hill's office. Agent Lanning begins to explain the weapon Hydra was carrying was a strange sort of sound emitter that could actually alter vibrations. Agent Todd suspected it was probably commissioned by the notorious Ulysses Claw after finding small piece of vibranium at the devices core. Agent Todd explains that they had recovered the vibranium fragment and the weapon, although the gun was beyond repair after Matthew had crushed it. The agents explained that he was pretty pissed at Claw for practically blowing her ear drums to hell. With the kids enhanced sensed, which heavily included sight and hearing, it couldn't have been pleasant.

Adam's focus was drifting in and out. Whenever someone would mention something about one of the kids he would tune back in other wise it was all background noise to him. All of the sudden Adam heard a painfully high pitched ringing in his ears that apparently no one else was hearing so Adam brushed it off until, "ADAM, HELP ME!" The psychic blast came at him like a title wave. All and once and hard.

Hill's eyes immediately went to Adam as he grunted and doubled over quickly and then he slipped out of his chair and passed out. "Foster?" She questioned concerned as she quickly pushed herself up from her chair and went to investigate. He was still breathing, his heart was still beating normal. Maria hadn't the slightest idea of what had just happened. She called medics to come have a look at him just in case it was something weird that could be potentially dangerous.

After a few minutes Adam woke up, rambling about something that wasn't quite coherent yet. However, Serena was the first one to be able to make sense of it all and was able to help the demi-god get his head strait again.

"A psychic S.O.S?" Maria quoted the half-immortal somewhat exasperatedly.

"This isn't the first time people have messaged me for help," Adam explains, rubbing the back of his head from the still dull ache.

"And did you black out every time too?" Adam gives Maria a look and shakes his head.

"Not normally, only when whoever's sending the call-out in frantic or scared."

"It's more than just sending out a message it's like sending out all of you emotions, your fears, your thoughts, like putting out a temporary copy of your entire consciousness. Sometimes that's too much for the receiver to take," Serena explains and adds in helpfully.

"Do we have any idea who sent out this S.O.S?" Maria decides to ask instead, opting to just go with it even though she clearly didn't understand it and probably never would either.

"Yeah," Adam breaths lowly "Adeline."


	30. Episode 14 (Someone Amiss Pt 2)

"Adeline?!" JP shouts as he jumps up. Adam didn't really want to tell the kid, but he also didn't want him to hear it anywhere else. That would have made it all the worse- Well, not that the fact of your sister and only family left has suddenly gone missing and is mentally screaming for help could get any better.

"We will find her," assures agent Hill who went along with Adam to explain the extent of the situation to everyone. She made it very clear that it was dangerous, not in front of JP of course, but to the others. She told them that they didn't know why someone took Adeline, they couldn't pin a motive nor could they find any evidence of when she was taken. Sometime late tonight was all they knew. Maria Hill feared that if Adeline was targeted this person could very well be targeting the whole team and she told them that they needed to lay low until they found where Adeline was being kept. They were always to go out with another person with them. "The best thing you can do right now is stay calm-"

"My sister is gone!" JP yells loudly into the space "gone!" The lights in the room start to spark and crackle on a kinetic level. Maria eyes JP sternly.

"Stop this," she orders firmly. Adam pats his hand on Maria's shoulder to silence her for a minute. He moves forward passed her and gets close to JP.

"Look, I know telling ya to stay calm is stupid and pointless, because there's no way that'll happen," Adam states and Maria glares daggers at him. If looks could kill Adam would be long gone. "But freaking out, wasting all of your energy now, that's not going to help Adeline when we go in and beat the hell out of whoever took her. You need to save all your strength if you expect to get this done." The lights still flicker but not as badly. Adam is surprised at himself that that even worked. Even though he is marginally astonished he doesn't show it. He just decides to go with it. "I know it's also pointless, but try and get some rest, huh?" JP nods weakly and runs off to his room, the awkward strobe light effect following him out.

"You don't actually plan on taking him with you," Maria says dryly, it isn't even voiced as a question. She doesn't take Adam as an idiot- very inexperienced and reckless- but not stupid.

"No," Adam answers as they leaved the house into the cold, bitter nights air "more than likely he would do anything and everything to try and rescue Adeline."

"Not that striving is a bad thing," Maria tuts, but she knows what Adam means "but I get that he thinks that if she dies he'll be alone and his life pointless and therefore he'll believe he has nothing to lose."

"Even if that means his life," Adam deadpans exasperatedly "this is a nightmare."

"Just wait," Maria starts as she opens the door to the mostly empty ops building and Adam walks in after her.

"What is it?" He groans.

"What do you want first?" Maria asks as she's handed a plexi-glass tablet from a late-working assistant "the good news or the bad news?" Adam just shakes his head so Maria goes in general order. "Good news is we know where Adeline is being held, that bad news, however," Adam prepares himself for the worst, he's just waiting or her to say HYDRA or A.I.M, but that moment surprisingly never comes "there's a barrier around the old house she's supposedly at."

"What kind of barrier?" Adam asks, knowing that he'll most likely regret asking when he hears the answer.

"It's metaphysical in a sense. Mainly psychic, DNA baselined."

"Son of a bitch," Adam cursed and leans over on one of the desks. He slams his hands down on them a second later. He and Maria both know what this means.

"I don't have anything else to offer, no one at S.H.I.E.L.D does, but-"

"But the kids do," Adam grounds out angrily. He pushes himself up off the table and angrily stalks about the space. "I won't risk their lives on this."

"We may not have a choice here," Maria voices quietly, but albeit strongly like always "normally I wouldn't-"

"Wouldn't what?" Adam stammers, cutting her off again "wouldn't risk multiple agents lives for one person? But you will on this oh so special occasion because she's a child?! But now in this instance you'll send in Children to go in to fight this battle alone because god forbid ever getting a goddamn choice in my life-..." Adam bit his lower lip, hard, to stop himself. Adam risks glancing back at Maria and finds she's pleasantly just standing there, arms crossed, waiting for him to finish. Adam nods as a mild thanks and Maria gives a basic expression of acknowledgement.

"I _Do Not_ want it to be this way more than you, believe me," Maria says and Adam is shocked just by how genuine it sounds.

"I won't be able to choose," Adam says, leaning over on the table again. He feels far too drained from the situation all too quickly. He felt like it was choosing who he would sent to their likely deaths. If this was the pressure of being a leader, he wasn't sure that he could mentally handle it.

"Then don't," says a new voice and Serena walks into the room. Now it's just the three of them. Adam, Maria and Serena. "I can. I'll base it on strategy and try not to think about it otherwise," she says, but she's holding something back that Adam can clearly sense in her tone.

"Why?" Adam asks the young doctor.

"Because if I'm basing this on the logic of the situation then you'll have to bring me along." Adam looks skeptical and incredulously amused at her statement. Serena raises and eyebrow and crosses her arms.

"Wait, you're serious?" Serena scoffs at what he says.

"You know I can handle myself, Foster," she retorts and Adam gets de ja vu from her words somehow.

"Look, I didn't mean it that way," Adam reprimands apologetically, hoping that she didn't take it as a sexist thing "you're a doctor, a scientist. You're not exactly-"

"A soldier?" Serena says, slowly edging closer. "From where I'm standing I can't see many of those here either." Adam quirks an eyebrow. He would be lying if he said that he wasn't mildly turned on right now. Maria watched their exchanges silently.

"Miss Grey, none of us are up for the task, it's not personal." Serena smirks at Adam's comment.

"No, you see, I'm always up for the _T.A.S.K._ " Adam nearly chokes. His throat constricts and his eyes go wide. He's beginning to see a whole different side of Serena. A whole, impossibly surprising, side.

"You- you were part of _T_ _he_ T.A.S.K division?" Adam says numbly, still unable to fully wrap his mind around it.

"I actually was Task, ya know, once upon a time," Serena states with some more insecurity than before. Many didn't know, but the T.A.S.K division was a group of strategically trained mutants by both S.H.I.E.L.D and the X-Men, before the latter disbanded. The T.A.S.K force worked covertly and more efficiently than any group besides Secret Warriors. However, it didn't last when things became out of control. Bearing witness your friends and maybe even family go through finding traitors, watching suicides and being responsible for many casualties will mess with people pretty bad and when S.W.O.R.D was formed and started creating laws against meta-humans, it was sorta the last straw for them and the members of T.A.S.K were said to have disappeared entirely. Never to be heard or seen again.

There had been rumors of one of the members the excelled so greatly that she actually inherited the group name Task for herself. Although this girl also had a secret as to why, but nothing ever recorded or shared on such a level.

Adam may have been right to be a bit awe-struck. There were only five members of T.A.S.K and two had died, it was a bit surreal to have been talking to one all this time. Everyone had their secrets. "You're not going to stand there all night gawking, are you?" Serena quips, bringing Adam back to reality. He's still not used to her attitude right now, it was so unlike her. Or at least how he knew her.

"Don't be ridiculous," Adam scoffs, not sure really what else to say or how he can even climb out of this one. A topic change may be best. "Decide whose coming, then make sure they rest up," Adam says as he starts to leave the building. Despite all the recent information and the fact that Adam now had so many questions, he needed to sleep and get his head strait. Tomorrow was going to be one hell of a day.

* * *

Serena picked based on statistics alone, the only way she could do it. If she were to base it on anything else her mind would go right back to the fact that they were all children...like it was now. Serena shook her head and tried to stay focused and glued her eyes to the files in front of her. She'd anger herself whenever she'd look at a picture of one of the kids in the top left corner of the page and got images and mental flashed of them in the ground. Serena clutched the end of the desk tightly and breathed in sharply. Statistics, logic, strategy, she repeated over and over in her head. If she could manage that for even a short time she could get this done.

She firstly picked James as he was the ideal choice. He was strong, fast, witty, tactical from the training he received from his father. Very level headed and easy-going. Yes, he was just ideal for the mission.

Next Serena decided on Alice. She was pretty strait forward. Alice was quick and skilled. She could remove herself from almost any situation and avoid the chaos. She would be very useful as an operative to go and find Adeline while the others dealt with any dirty work, which Serena hoped would be avoided, but didn't seem likely.

Lastly was Matthew and saying he was a bit of a wildcard was an understatement. He was reckless, emotionally driven and sometimes arrogant, but he was still the heaviest hitter they had, plus he knew Adeline better than the rest of them and Serena didn't know who took her so she had no idea what they might be doing to her. Serena shuddered to think. Adeline had had an incredibly rough time here so far. Serena was atheist and not at all religious, but she prayed that Adeline was okay right now wherever she was.

* * *

"So you knock me over the head, then you buy me pizza?" Adeline questions as she takes another bite. Yes, she was back in the cage, but some furniture had been moved in to make it feel more like a room than a cage. The absence of the bars might have even made it a suite. Not that Adeline had much chance of being freed again from her last run. She had to be on best behavior. If she'd learned anything from some of her lessons at S.H.I.E.L.D it was that you put on a show. "Is this your apology?"

"Wasn't my idea, babe, I couldn't care less," says the girl that fought Adeline before. She was on the other side of the bars and she also had a slice "orders from elsewhere."

"You mean The Vision?" Adeline questions and the blonde gives her a look. An expression that in both questioning and threatening simultaneously. Adeline shrugs and plays it off as nothing, even though she doubts it's convincing. "Why does an all powerful cyborg need a ninja hanging around anyways?"

"Hun, you really have no idea," she mutters and she continues eating her slice of pizza. The girl leans back in the chair outside the bars. "To be honest I thought you wouldn't be so stupid and would have figured it out by now."

"Excuse me?" Adeline says after she swallows a large bite.

"You and your brother, duh," she says like it's so incredibly obvious, but Adeline is still left playing catch up. Big time. What did any of this nonsense have to do with her? Even more, what the hell did it have to do with her brother? Why did this girl know so much? Adeline was so, So, SO sick of having all these questions and not one goddamn answer yet. Adeline felt a pang of rage start to spark and boil inside her. It made her insides twist to find that this, being caged, might be her brothers fate soon enough and though it was a fairly luxurious cage, it was still a cage nonetheless. Adeline needed to figure something out and as of several moment's ago, she just had. Adeline scarfed down her slice of pizza then looked at the girl expectantly.

"Well? Are you going to hog it all for yourself?" She asks, trying to sound as incredulous as she can. The blonde rolls her eyes, tosses another piece of a paper plate and leans over to toss it to Adeline. Though when she leans and tips her chair, Adeline moves her hand out the twists her hand backwards towards herself, curling her fingers into to make a fist. The chair comes flying at the bars with the girl still on it. She cries out from getting his on iron, but mainly from the shock. Adeline reaches her arms out in between the bars and wraps one arm around the girls torso, then places another open palm on her forehead. Adeline began using her powers to start hacking away at the girls mental barriers, which were surprisingly thick, and tried to search for some goddamn answers already. The girl screamed, but Adeline couldn't hear her. The meta-humans eyes had gone purely silver and she was lost inside the consciousness of someone else. The girls head was like a jumbled up jigsaw puzzle, seemingly impossible to crack and quite possibly incomprehensible, though Adeline kept searching.

He search was, however, interrupted when she felt two strong, cold hands yank hers away from the girl. Adeline is brought back to her own consciousness by a mental force way stronger than her own. The meta-humans vision swims, but she can vaguely make out a form and besides that there were only three people in this building, one being her, so there weren't any other options. "Don't harm each other, please," says the mechanical man known as the Vision. His grip around Adeline's wrists are incredibly gentle, but firm enough to hold them there. "Don't put yourselves through something like that."

"You didn't tell me she was a fucking telepath too, V," snaps the blonde girl angrily and she gets up off the floor. He expression is etched with clear anger and her words are like potent venom.

"I did not know myself," says the Vision calmly "I had suspicions, but I could not say for certain." The girl shakes her head and scowls.

"I really hope, for both our damn sakes, that you know what the hell you're doing," she spits as she begins to storm off.

"L-Luna," Adeline mutters, still coming out of the trance. She wasn't very skilled with her full on abilities yet. "Lu-na M-Maximoff."

* * *

 **A/N: How many of you actually remember seeing _TASK_ on a particular listing from Episode 8? And how many people know who Luna Maximoff is from the comics?**


	31. Episode 15 (Challenging Road Pt 1)

_**Previously on "Dangerous Games"...**_

 _Adeline coughed a few times, the dust entering her lungs was quite unwelcome. So was the ache of her body from laying on the cracked, uneven floor. She shook her head as she started to push herself up off the ground. Her fingers traced over a bump on her forehead, that was still throbbing. Adeline groaned and started to move her legs and feet properly and upwards until her foot collided with something hard. Adeline turned her head to the side and looked, although her vision was still blurry she could see the iron bars. Adeline gasped, but then coughed again due to the dust. She was imprisoned somewhere._

 _"I'm sorry," said an odd, mildly british-accented voice. Adeline scrambles to her feet and tries to locate the person from behind the bars. "You weren't meant to be brought here injured." Several questions buzzed through her mind:_ _ **Who are you? Where am I? Why am I here?**_

 _Adam's focus was drifting in and out. Whenever someone would mention something about one of the kids he would tune back in other wise it was all background noise to him. All of the sudden Adam heard a painfully high pitched ringing in his ears that apparently no one else was hearing so Adam brushed it off until,_ _ **"ADAM, HELP ME!"**_ _The psychic blast came at him like a tidal wave. All and once and hard._

 _"A psychic S.O.S?" Maria quoted the half-immortal somewhat exasperatedly. "Do we have any idea who sent out this S.O.S?"_

 _"Yeah," Adam breaths lowly "Adeline."_

 _"No, you see, I'm always up for the **T.A.S.K.** " Adam nearly chokes. His throat constricts and his eyes go wide. He's beginning to see a whole different side of Serena. A whole, impossibly surprising, side._

 _"You- you were part of the T.A.S.K division?" Adam says numbly, still unable to fully wrap his mind around it._

 _"I actually was Task, ya know, once upon a time," Serena states with some more insecurity than before. Many didn't know, but the T.A.S.K division was a group of strategically trained mutants by both S.H.I.E.L.D and the X-Men, before the latter disbanded. The T.A.S.K force worked covertly and more efficiently than any group besides Secret Warriors. However, it didn't last when things became out of control. Bearing witness your friends and maybe even family go through finding traitors, watching suicides and being responsible for many casualties will mess with people pretty bad and when S.W.O.R.D was formed and started creating laws against meta-humans, it was sorta the last straw for them and the members of T.A.S.K were said to have disappeared entirely. Never to be heard or seen again._

* * *

"JP will hate us now," James mutters as he looks out of the window of the quin-jet. They small group had departed roughly a few hours ago. They had geared up and Maria had arranged for a pilot to take them to the coordinates shown. She had also arranged for the kids mission supervisors, agents Todd and Lanning, to watch the house that Canary, Rori and JP were still at.

Adam had slipped sleeping agents into JP's dinner last night. Strong ones. The kid probably wouldn't be up until this afternoon, but Adam wanted to be sure he provided plenty of time for the rest of them to get away. The half god also needed to make sure he had time to warn Todd and Lanning about JP's electrical surge tantrums. Needless to say Adam owed the agents big time now.

"Once we come back with him sister it won't matter," Serena says from where she's standing, leaning up against the front wall of the jet.

"Fair enough," answered James. He tapped his fingers on the glass of the window. "We do have a plan for that, right?"

"Roughly," Adam mutters and James' eyes twitches just ever so slightly.

"Great," he grumbled sarcastically. Some people thought it was a just a nickname, but James' dad really was the-man-with-a-plan. He always had everything organized and even if it was a spontaneous event he made up a new plan on the spot and no matter what you stuck to it. James supposed his near need to always have things mapped out was probably from his dad's obsessive need to.

"Actually, we probably should get a strategy set," Serena suggests and Adam looks up at her from where he's sitting on one of the chairs off to the side. He spins around in it so that he can face her.

"But we have no idea what the place we're even going to looks like," he retorts. Serena shakes her head.

"That doesn't mean we can't start formulating even the outline of a plan," she shoots back and Adam crosses his arms.

"It actually does. We have no idea how many men could be there, if it's protected by something other than a MH barrier or god only knows what else." The three kids looked between the two as they argued. Clearly both of them were set in their own ways. They both had very different styles in everything from fight style to lifestyle. Alice figured that for the longest time they probably both prided themselves for being some of the best at what they do and didn't want to compromise. She figured it was safer to just let the two hash things out before she tried to intervene.

The incessant arguing continued. Going on and on and sorta moving off topic. They only paused when the jet jolted violently. Adam whipped his head to the side and looked at the pilot. "What was that?" He inquired.

"Just some mild turbulence," answers the male S.H.I.E.L.D pilot dully, not bothering to say anything more than that. Adam shrugs it off, but then it happens again. Adam and Serena both become suspicious enough to put aside their bickering.

Matthew suddenly becomes tense in his seat. That feeling was back again. The kind that made his skin crawl and itch. Something that made him want to burst up out of his seat, though this feeling wasn't panic, it was anticipation. He felt as though his whole body was revving up and no matter how he tried to calm himself down it wasn't stopping. He realized then that this wasn't anxiety, but then again if it wasn't that he had no idea what it was. Adam seemed to catch Matthew's weird exterior and went to go sit down next to him. Matthew was at the far back of the quin-jet. The vehicle was actually big enough for all of them to be able to spread out, so they did just that.

"You doing alright?" Adam asks and he takes the seat next to Matthew on a padded bench along the wall.

"Yeah," Matthew lies. He resists the urge to scratch at his skin, even though he knew it was useless. Whatever was going on right now was happening inside.

"You don't look it," answers the half immortal. Matthew rolls his eyes.

"Whatever," he mutters annoyed. Adam scrutinizes the boy for no more than a moment. He can say whatever he wants but the slowly appearing psychical changes on his body prove otherwise.

"You know your eyes are a dead give away," Adam says as he leans back in his chair casually. Matthew glances at Adam momentarily and his eyes narrow. "Fine. Don't tell me what's up." Matthew groans inwardly but his mouth opens despite himself.

"I swear I can just feel that something wrong," Matthew says almost frantically. Adam can sense the desperation in the kids voice. Apparently this is something that he really wants- no- needs Adam to understand. Unfortunately he doesn't at the time being.

"What do you mean?" He asks calmly. Showing that he himself isn't worried or panicked and hopefully Matthew would see that everything's fine, but it doesn't allay him any and Adam starts to worry about him. Adam glances for a second over to the front of the jet and see's that Serena is up with the pilot, discussing something. That means Adam is on his own for this one. No aid from the mind-reader. Damn.

"I- I don't really know. I just know that something bad is about to go down," he says, just as frantic as before. Adam wonders if it's just anxiety and the kid is worried about the fight that will inevitably ensue later. After what happened with Zemo and the mission with Todd and Lanning, Matthew was a bit more hesitant about these situations.

"Let's just chill for a minute," Adam says slowly, still leaning back openly in his chair "no need to freak out." The jet jolts again and Adam can see, out of the corner of his eye, Serena flashing the pilot an almost murderous glare. Matthew's eyes shift a little more green and Adam almost swears that it's just anxiety.

"N-no. This happened right before you first showed up and before Ms. Allure and before the earthquake and right before Jackson and-"

"Slow down," Adam says, holding his hand out. This changed things a bit. It was all very plausible now that this could be a different extent of his abilities, although something that only served to panic him badly. Adam figured the kid must have felt like he was just laying in wait for something terrible to happened and no one would believe him otherwise before it was too late. "Just hang tight, take a deep breath, we'll figure this out," assures the demi-god. He pats Matthew on the shoulder once before making his way to the front. "Somethings not right," Adam whispers to Serena so that none of the kids can hear.

"What?" Serena asks, matching his same quiet tone.

"Something wrong here and I don't like it," Adam rephrases. He keeps glancing back at Matthew, who looks like he's becoming more stressed by the minute. Whatever sense is plaguing him right now is getting stronger by whatever danger he thinks they're in.

"You think we should land?" Serena asks. Adam sighs.

"I'm not sure."

"What do you think it is that is going to happen?" Serena questions worriedly and Adam wishes he could give a real informative answer, but all he has to go on is the odd meta-human instincts of a panicked teenager. Adam shakes his head to explain that he doesn't really know. Serena takes it as enough though. All meta-humans seemed to have an instinct for this sort of thing and Serena respected Adam's.

Matthew lets out a small pained noise and goes stiff as a board for a second. A moment later Alice shrieks, but it's short lived. The ginger spring up out of her chair and stares wide-eyes at the front of the jet. Adam's and Serena's gaze whip over to where she was looking. The pilot had some how been impaled with some sort of.. what the hell was that? A spike? They were in the goddamn sky! Either way the man was dead and the plane started to tip. Something crawled over the front of the windshield. Something with scales and a stiff tail. "What the hell was that thing?!" Alice whispers quietly, still in shock.

"Nothing good," Adam muttered. Things were all too quiet for a minute right before some blew. The engine.

_Dangerous Games_

"How long do you intend to keep me prisoner here for no reason?" Adeline says to her distracted captor. The cyborg known as the Vision looks of from the book he was currently looking at.

"I am sorry that you feel like a prisoner," he says and that's all he says. Adeline had been let out of her cage recently. As of a day ago, but only so long as she was watched by someone, mainly the Vision himself now since his odd sidekick- ya know, the one who somehow shared the same surname as Adeline- hadn't come around since the whole mind reading incident.

Despite saying that she was imprisoned, Adeline had been well taken care of. She had been provided with new clothes, silky and silver. She shuddered to think on how these people found out her preferences. She's been given her own suite in the house that was much bigger than any place she's ever stayed before. Still, she barely had any privacy.

Adeline got up off the couch she was lounging on. "I only feel that way for two reasons. Number 1: You won't let me out of this house and Number 2: You won't tell me why I'm here," she says harshly. She's pretty much come to the conclusion by now that if this...man..? Wanted to hurt her he would have done so by now and he wouldn't have made such an effort to protect her.

"You are welcome to traverse anywhere on the grounds, but not beyond, it isn't safe."

"You keep saying that," Adeline snaps "but you won't tell me whatever it is that you're supposedly protecting me from!" The robot gives no response. Adeline huffs annoyed and starts to make her way outside the room. When she grasps the door handle Vision glances at her. "I thought you said I was at least allowed to explore." The cyborgs green eyes leave her and Adeline makes her way outside the room. Adeline made her way through the dim halls. She walked all the way downstairs and to the main front doors. She grasped the handles and pulled them as hard as she could. Nothing. She also tried backing up and firing at them with her powers. Nada. She really didn't think it would work, it was too much to hope for, but it was worth a shot Adeline supposed. Adeline sighs deeply and leans against the large left wall. It's surprisingly cold. Like ice almost. Adeline hisses from the chill and turns around and away from it, though only for a moment as it makes her very curious. Adeline places her hand on the front wall which the door is on, which would be the outer wall facing the cold outside, but that wall is completely warm. The temperature change sure was weird. Adeline placed her hands back on the left wall. Freezing. She tapped on it in several places. The sound echoed around the large foyer, but also in another way. The wall seemed hollow. Adeline pressed her hands firmly only the wall and leaned her body up against it to listen as she tapped on it again. Suddenly, scaring herself so much, she fell through the wall in a silver haze. Adeline screeched as she fell through. The feeling was just...she couldn't describe it.

The Vision paused from where he was in the other room and dropped his book.

Adeline was suddenly hit with a burst of cold. She shivered and was glad the silver blouse she was given at least had long sleeves. Adeline coughed once and looked around the dark space. She couldn't see that far out in front of her. It reminded her of that test in the S.H.I.E.L.D warehouse when all of the project Next A kids had all come together for the first time. Adeline frowned sadly. She missed them and her brother so much. She even missed _Alice_... marginally... maybe... not all that much actually.

Adeline could see large shelves built onto both side wall of the fairly large room. Many strange objects adjourned them. Adeline tapped and looked at some of them. They ranged from strange technology to unique and odd relics. It was pretty cool. Adeline moved to a side wall where a large standing titanium grate was. It was turned away from view. Adeline held her hands out to create a light and she moved around to the other side. Adeline cocked her head to the side. It looked familiar from somewhere, but it wasn't good that much she knew. Adeline moved one of her hands out to touched the strange robotic form and as he hand came close to it she swore that the robotic body moved. That it jolted all around and actually it was. The robot seemed to shriek in it's own way. Adeline jumped back and screamed. The thing had glowing red eyes. Adeline kept moving backwards quickly until she bumped into something. Adeline turned around quickly, shaking and hyperventilating. Instantly strong arms are wrapped around her. It feels a little strange, but it is definitely a comforting gesture. "Wh-what was that?" The girl asked shakily.

"Nothing," answered the Vision, who was the one who came to Adeline's aid "a memory. Someone else's vision." He guided her away from it.

"Why are you doing this?" The cyborg glances down at her "helping me like this?"

"I knew your mother once," he starts. He sits Adeline down on the other side of the room. "She was _unique_ and the only human I had ever thought about... cared about. I couldn't stop."

"You were in love with her," Adeline states. It isn't a question. She can feel the emotion off of him. She didn't think a cyborg being could feel like that.

"Very much so," he says with a small, stiff grin. "I married her." Adeline's eyes go wide. She clenches her jaw to ensure that her mouth doesn't fall open too.

"You married my mother?"

"We were inseparable," he starts slowly, maybe even nervously "we were happy for the longest time. Even as the Avengers fell, we did not... I'm not human and she wanted something I could not provide. We created you and your brother in the image of your mothers own sibling." Adeline pretty much stopped breathing.

"JP and I.. We're _Phantoms_?" Adeline's mind rushed back to when Adam had explained it all to them. Phantoms were born, created or made. Something that wasn't human on in some cases even real. Adeline couldn't stomach what this even meant. She wasn't human.

"You are," Vision assures her as if reading her mind, and who knows, maybe he could "you were born and raised." Somehow, Adeline thinks. "You and your brother... were the most beautiful creations I had ever set my sights on. You were so delicate and perfect that it didn't take your mother and I long to bring your brother in-"

"STOP!" Adeline screams and objects all around the room shatter and fly backwards with the telekinetic backlash.

* * *

Adam flipped a piece of wreckage off of Alice. It hadn't been pressed hard enough on top of her to hurt her luckily and it had just been on her leg.

The half god had been able to create a wind barrier around the jet as it had started falling. By the time of had crashed there was little damage by comparison to what it would have been. The front of the jet had caved in completely and therefore had no chance of being operational. The rest of the jet had just been battered out of shape. It sorta looked like the cornucopia from the Hunger Games now.

James was able to pull their stuff free from the shelves that the ceiling had partly bent in over. "Well, that officially sucked," Alice said as she brushed herself off. Serena sighed lightly when she saw on her tablet that they were still miles away from the coordinates they were given from S.H.I.E.L.D. Serena whipped her head to the side when she heard Adam yell angrily. He threw his hands down on the outside of the quin jet and under the pressure of his god-like strength the metal bent. It creaked horribly, the sound echoed through the plains they had crashed down on near some river shore; where exactly was unknown.

"Hey!" Serena says sternly when she see's the other kids watching his antics "there's no need for that."

"Well, it's not exactly salvageable now, is it?!" Adam snaps back, gesturing to the wreckage. Serena walks up closer to him.

"This isn't helping anyone," Serena says evenly, but firmly at the same time. Just enough to get her point across, but not enough to make things even more tense for the kids who are still just watching. Serena grasps Adam's forearm lightly. "We are going to find Adeline. Let's just try and keep our cool, okay?" Adam sighs and rubs his chin in thought.

"Go salvage the stuff you can from the jet," Adam says lowly to the Matthew, Alice and James. They start to walk off. Matthew saunters and looks back for a moment. Adam's back is turned to them and he's looking out onto the water, slowly moving in the direction of it. Serena smiles warmly and gestures for Matthew to go on with the others. He nods and goes. Serena would handle it. She was good at situation management. Serena walks up next to Adam silently. "You know where this is, right?"

"How could I not?" She answers. Adam gives her a slight look and scowls.

"They had a shot against humans, but a whole team of meta-humans-" Adam cuts himself off with a sigh "and the worst kind at that."

"The Serpent Society," Serena nearly hisses, no pun intended. It had been a popular subject in many meta-human circles for a long while. The Serpent Society was a ruthless organization. Vile snakes all of them. They were held up in a ruined city in Virginia, they themselves had poisoned and killed all the people living in the partially built town. The area was reserved for a warehouse and store district back in 2027. The Society stopped the operations and construction and held up in the wreckage and unfinished structures. Their numbers were multiplying and many more had been added to the team. They initially planned on taking on Washington D.C and the pentagon. They might have succeeded too if it weren't for T.A.S.K, the X-Men and several other nameless meta-human gangs. Teamed up they knocked the Serpent Society down a few pegs. It was where Adam and Serena actually first met, though Adam believed that she was there with the mutant academy then. "We should find a way to pull them out."

"We can't," Adam grumbles "we have no communication links here, no extraction, no nothing." Serena sighs.

"Damn it," she lightly swears. Adam can't help but smirk pull at the corners of his lips as he's never really heard Serena cuss before. The only other time being when he was left alone in her office for a few minutes, it resulted in everything that was so neatly organized ending up in a total disarray. Needless to say she wasn't very happy with his antics and it had all ended in a very interesting discussion. One that ended in a hypothetical restraining order to Serena's space.

Adam looks back and see's Matthew, Alice and James walking back towards them. "With any luck we'll all survive this," he whispers to the mutant as he turns around and goes to explain things to the others.


	32. Episode 15 (Challenging Road Pt 2)

_The little silver haired girl skipped down the grassy lot that was her home. Her brother toddled beside her, as he was a bit younger. They were told to stay in the general area, but being the curious kids that they were that didn't exactly happen. They weren't human, their parents weren't. Their mother was once upon a time, their father was something unknown. Some people feared them, some people wanted to take them. It became dangerous for them there and for a child it was nearly impossible to comprehend that home wasn't a safe place._

 _The strange inhuman man knelt down beside the little girl one night while she was in bed. She was curled up, covering her ears from the loud noises. Gunshots. He hushes her and draws her close to him. Not many thought that a cyborg or robot could display the kind of hurt and pain that plagued his features. A soft golden glow emitted over the young girl, relaxing and allaying her fears since now, after what he had just done to her mind, she didn't remember what she was supposed to be afraid of anymore. The same thing happened to the young boy in suit._

 _Armed men burst through the door holding their guns high and waking the children from the sleep they were put into. "Where is he?!" One demanded._

 _"He's gone," says a brunette woman. Her eyes are glowing red and the skin underneath them is puffy and dark; she'd been crying. "You won't find him again." The men click the safety on their rifles and point them all at the woman._

 _"Momma!" Yells the silver haired girl in fear. She huddles in the corner of the room with her young brother._

 _"Fire!" Yells one of the S.W.O.R.D agents. The witch raises her hands and everything is taken down with a scarlet red blast._

Adeline finds that she's crying after the mental vision is over. She's laying in her bed in the Vision's house. He'd stopped blocking her out mentally and every once in awhile, despite herself, Adeline would take a small peek into the memories of the life she had before her mind was wiped by the Vision.

* * *

"Snake people," Alice mutters from where she's walking next to James "and I thought I'd seen everything." The teenaged girl thinks back to when she was first approached by S.H.I.E.L.D, when she'd met Sharon and Adam. Dimitri Akim, the dark matter meta-human that had almost killed her. Probably would have too if it weren't for Adam's god like powers. Alice was actually pretty bemused to find out that Adam actually was a demi-god.

"Worse," James whispers back "the Serpent Society isn't a joke. I saw the horribly high stacks of causality lists from their last raid on my Dad's desk." Though this raid was years ago it was still devastating. James thought it might have been around 2027 or so.

"Why hasn't anyone taken these bastards out?" Alice demands, though still speaking quietly and under her breath.

"I don't think that anyone can," James says very lowly.

The broken city district they walked through was like a post-apocalyptic wastelands. It made the group sick just looking at all of the destruction. They could hear hisses and subtle movement all around them. It gave Adam the impression that the snakes of people who lived in this junkyard was waiting to make their kill for reasons unknown the the half god. He turned it 'round in his head as to why they would want to wait. It kept him on his toes, even more than he'd been before.

Serena and Adam walked a little ways ahead of the others, leading the way. James was closely following them, but at this point in time Matthew and Alice had dropped back a bit. Not far. Alice could hear a loud hissing from right behind her. Or rather it seemed like right behind her, though she was out in the open with no hiding spot for any of those reptiles to hide and stalk. She figured that she must just have been imagining things until she caught of pair of yellow slit eyes starring at her from a broken building. It was mainly in the shadows, but as it hissed again it showed it's abnormally large fangs. The creatures skin was scaly, but it stood like a human, albeit, stood much taller than the average human. It was pretty scary. It slowly started to stalk forward out of the shadows. Alice backed up a bit, subtly moving her hand to her holster, readying herself. "Hey," said someone to Alice's left. Matthew grabbed her upper arm lightly. Alice whipped her head around and almost pulled the gun on him. "You okay?" Alice didn't answer. Her eyes shot back to survey the reptilian creature. She was surprised to see now that it was quickly moving away. Why? It had major intent to kill her before! Then Matthew had just showed up and-...The serpent changed it's mind...because of him?

"I'm fine," Alice snaps, pushing him off and moving quickly to keep up with the rest of the group. Matthew looked mildly puzzled, but shrugged it off and kept going, still trailing behind the others.

* * *

"I'm telling you, the serpents were avoiding him for some reason," Alice says to Adam after the group had made camp in one of the buildings on the outskirts of the district.

"But that doesn't make any sense," insists Adam "they've never even seen him before, they know nothing about him."

"I know what I saw," Alice proclaims "and for some strange reason they didn't want to go near him." Adam sighs heavily and leans back against the wall.

"I don't understand what any of this has to do with Matthew," says the demi-god as he looks over at the sleeping teenager "he's just a kid."

"You're guess is as good as mine," Alice says. She shivers lightly. She feels incredibly paranoid in this place since that snake person from before she found pursuing her. She knew one thing though, even if she didn't particularly like him, she was going to stick close to Matthew during this trip.

Adam kept watch while the others either rested or slept. With Adam's powers becoming stronger than ever now he had a feeling that none of those snakes were going to get the jump on him. He spent the waking hours on his shift thinking about Alice's suspicions. Adam didn't know how it was at all possible that the Serpent Society would want to avoid some random kid. His mind just couldn't make the connection, especially not without all of the variables. The only thing Adam could guess at was the fact that reptiles had incredible senses and judge of prey; Matthew's hybrid nature might be possibly sending off some kind of aura of power that worried them. Adam discarded that thought though because the society had never been afraid of anyone before. Not phantoms or hybrids or anyone. So what was it that made them quite possibly scared of this boy? Adam didn't yet know. Something he was sure of, however, was that something prominent enough to make the society wary should also make him the same.

The demi-god could hear hissing not far off. Adam looks off to the left to see two pairs of yellow slit eyes staring on at the sleeping group. Though they were stalking with a murderous glare they didn't advance. Matthew was sleeping on the left most side, a slight ways off from the others. One of the serpents slithered over to the snoozing hybrid. Adam quickly started to jet over there. The serpent slithered quickly away, back into the darkness before even Adam could make it there. The blonde looked very confused at their antics. This wasn't anything like the badass, ruthless meta-humans that he'd faced up against before. Adam looked down at Matthew. He was still sound asleep and seemingly fine. The only thing the serpent had done was slide Matthew's left sleeve up with it's slender scaly tail. Adam scrutinized the area quizzically, it was then that he noticed two small circular marks in Matthew's forearms. They weren't bleeding. The skin that held the marks was slightly pinked and scared over already, the markings must have been old. Years old. If Adam didn't know any better he'd say those looked like fanged markings. The veins around the mark looked healthy as well. They weren't inflamed, bulged or discolored. If this meant what Adam thought it did then yes, the society did have reason to worry.

* * *

Adeline woke up, gasping horribly from another dream. She quickly got up out of bed and opened one of the double doors to her room and intended to walk out and then down the hall, just to clear her head, however, this didn't happen. The silver haired girl stopped dead in her tracks when a pair of slightly lethargic blue eyes met her silver ones. "I thought you were avoiding me," Adeline says lowly. She doesn't really know why she's being so quiet since the only people in this house was Vision and the two girls. Both girls were awake and Vision didn't sleep so keeping her voice down was completely unnecessary.

"Oh, I am," answers the estranged Luna Maximoff "you're whining woke me up."

"I'm sorry," says Adeline very apologetically and she scuffs her pale bare feet of the chilled tiled floor.

"Whatever," says the blonde. She starts to walk off again, back towards her room most likely.

"Does he hold you here too?" Adeline asks, forcing the words out. She turns to face where Luna had just descended, her words echo down the large hall. Luna turns back halfway and her eyebrow is raised.

"It isn't like that at all," she says almost amused, but half annoyed.

"Then why do you stay here away from everyone?" Luna scoffs.

"You don't know? Not after you went picking through my brain a few days ago?" Adeline internally winces.

"I wasn't trying to be invasive to you, I was just trying to find anything I could on the Vision." Luna shrugs and gestures for Adeline to follow her as she walks down the hall. Adeline looks unsure, but does. Luna leads her down to the kitchen, she grabs two soda's and slides one across the old granite tiled island to Adeline. The telepath just looks at it for a second. Luna takes a seat on one of the high stools.

"I might as well spit it out since you'll go skimming through my memories anyways." Adeline doesn't say that she'd never do that. This apparent Luna Maximoff had been making Adeline crazy and so impossibly curious by now that she felt like she just had to know.

"I met old nuts and bolts years ago," begins Luna "I was probably about seven or so. The woman was was apparently my mother had an affair with some guy named Pietro Maximoff. I took his surname. Apparently my mother didn't have one. From what I was able to find out she was just known as Crystal. I never really knew anything about her, nobody did, all they said was that she wasn't exactly human and that was enough for S.W.O.R.D to come after me."

"Wait," Adeline says, not wanting to interrupt but was confused "what happened when you were seven?" Luna snapped the cap off her glass bottle of coke. The cap landed right in the garbage can after bouncing off the wall once.

"I'm getting to that," the blonde answers, taking a swig of soda "ya see, my mom bailed on me and my dad apparently didn't know I existed. I spent the first few years of my life in an orphanage. Apparently during this time Pietro was doing some kind of work with HYDRA right before he died."

"The battle of Sokovia," Adeline says under her breath. Luna nods.

"Yeah. So a few years later some woman approached me claiming to be Pietro's sister, Wanda. She whisked me away and took me in."

"W-what?" Adeline stammers. She'd connected several of these dots so far, with the surname mostly, but this. "My mother took you in?"

"Yep, surely you didn't know about it and no, she didn't keep me for long. She set me up here with Vision, then vaguely dropped off the earth with you and Jeremy."

"Why did my mother drop you off here, but if she was so close with the Vision, why didn't she stay?" Adeline starts to vaguely wonder about the strange dream/psychic vision that she'd had early. One that involved the Vision. People were after him, S.W.O.R.D agents. Could this be why he left? Maybe he didn't want to draw attention to Wanda, JP or Adeline herself.

"You and your brother mainly," answers Luna. Adeline is anxious about the fact that they know about her brother, but for now she isn't going to mention it. "But really it was because of the mind stone." Luna catches Adeline's confused look, rolls hey eyes and sighs. "Ya know that weird gem that's partly embedded in Vision's head? That's the mind stone. It could pretty much short out every single brain on the planet. Ya know, if V wanted to."

"And that's not at all unsettling to you?" Adeline snaps in a raspy high pitched voice.

"Except he wouldn't do that," Luna adds in all confidence.

"There are some things that he doesn't tell you," Adeline snaps again, standing up. Luna moans.

"Here I am trying to make peace and you've got to go and smash it all up."

"I've read his mind, I know what he thinks," Adeline says "did you know that Pietro died saving an Avenger?" Luna nods. "Did you know that Vision wants to hold JP here too?" Luna still shrugs impartially. Adeline seems angry that she can't get her to see. "Did you know that Vision knows who your mother is?" That one slammed Luna. Full on slammed her inside. The room is completely silent for a full minute.

"Bullshit," Luna growls before walking out of the room. Adeline whips around and Luna is about to walk out. Tears welling up in her eyes desperate.

"You know it's true, please, help me. Get me out of here so I can protect my brother from this! Luna please!" Luna doesn't really know what's made Adeline so frantic all of the sudden, but her eyes are glowing silver so something must be happening.

"You're so naive, he won't hurt either of you," Luna snaps back.

"But he won't let us go! And my friends are in trouble he's told me and I've seen it, they need us! Luna, I've had my own visions, I know that someone's watching them even now, please I can't just let them die!"

"You're overreacting,"Luna says apprehensively and unsure. Adeline is rambling like a mad woman and it's honestly unnerving Luna a bit.

"It's these snake like people- I don't-" Adeline is so worked up and she's nearly in tears. Honestly Luna has no idea what's going on right now, but Adeline had her at snake people.

"Hold up, snake people like the Serpent Society? Glowing eyes? Scales? Fangs?"

"Yes! And they're trailing them right now!" Luna's lips part to an O shape. She didn't really know how Adeline knew this or if the chick was delusional or what, but if it even held any sort of resemblance to the truth Adeline's friends had just about signed their own death certificates. "V. Vision!" The cyborg wasted no time appearing through the wall of the kitchen. The golden gem on his head started to illuminate and Adeline's eyes rolled to the back of her head and she sank slowly on to the ground. Vision moved over to the silver-haired girl without a word and this didn't exactly please Luna. "Okay, number 1: what the hell did you do to her? And 2: what the fuck is going on with her?"

"It seems as though she was having a reaction to the infinity stone, or rather an extended increase and power from it. I simply put her mind at rest for the time being," Vision answers, still not even looking to Luna. Luna crosses her arms and still looks down at the knelt down cyborg with a raised eyebrow. Okay, that made sense. Adeline was partially created by the mind stone so being near to it in vicinity might affect her. Fine.

"You heard what she was saying. I know you did. You seem to know everything that transpires around you."

"Yes. It's part of being omnipotent," he answers, but with no more than that. Luna knows that he knows what she's getting at and she's tried of him going in circles.

"Then you know that her friends are walking right into the heart of the Serpent Society wastelands," Luna says bitterly. The Vision lulls Adeline into his partly mechanical arms and stands up. Luna's eyes widen marginally, still waiting for an answer.

"I am aware." Luna looks on at the being incredulously. He starts to make his way out of the old-style kitchen, floating just above ground level.

"You know that they're gonna die. They're outsiders, they don't know this place like you and I do," she snaps. Vision lands back on the ground and turns to face Luna for the first time during this whole exchange.

"I understand that you are upset. You have a kind heart, but not everyone can be saved. With the omnipotent ability, or curse, I watch death and life happen both simultaneously and this is how it's suppose to be." Luna wasn't 100% sure why this whole conversation was making her so angry until now. Hadn't the Vision said the same thing to her when she found out that Pietro, her father, had died?

"These people, whoever they are, came all this way to try and save her; risk their lives to protect your daughter from what they think is danger. They knew exactly where they were headed, didn't they?" Vision sighs and nods.

"Adeline sent a telepathic plea to one of them, yes. They more than likely followed that." Luna shakes her head and looks down almost sadly.

"They were willing to lay down their lives for your daughter," Luna says lowly "how can you just watch them die?"The Vision looks wearily once at Luna before turning around and descending out of the room once more.

"I won't look."

* * *

The group had continued to walk on through the broken town. Adam couldn't stop thinking about what he'd seen. Matthew had been bitten by one of those creatures before and survived somehow. These kind of reptiles had some of the most potent poison ever. Either you got to a hospital fast or you died. Any child that had ended up in the crossfire had a 8% chance of surviving. In 2027 Matthew would have only been eight or so at the time. There's no way he should have lived through that. Adam had a bad feeling that now the Serpent Society might have taken a particular interest in the kid because of it.

The group had been walking for a while and, finally, the end of this godforsaken place was nearly in sight. To be honest Alice was sick of always looking over her shoulder to see if there was another snake person lurking there. Who wouldn't be sick of that?

They all should have known that something bad was going to happen when they stepped into a large clearing, stone concrete paved smoothly beneath them and rubble piled up circled to the left and right of them. Hissing could be heard in between almost every brick. "Shit," Adam muttered as everything went deathly quiet. The sun was beaming down on them from the east. An incredibly slender figure's shadow flowed down from on top of a high rock pile. The dark haired, green eyed pale skinned woman was obviously notable. "Viper." Just then a huge reptilian creature with a huge, bigger than human sized scaly snake body and tale and face with cybernetic arms and claws. Bushmaster, Adam recognized him as. Terrible name, Adam knows that, but considering the fact that he was just bowled over by the guy, he's gonna not mention it right not.

Serena is the first to react. She whips her hand forward and Bushmaster goes flying off into a weakly built brick wall. Serena starts to walk over to help Adam up when she's whipped, literally, by titanium metallic whips, that are electrified. Serena remembers this person as Coachwhip. Not someone she at all missed from her last time here. The other kids see this and ready themselves. They're all suited up and armed. Matthew is the first to try and jump in and help, but before he can two metallic tentacle like arms are wrapped around him and he's yanked back and away from the fight. He's slammed into the persons metallic chest-plate and he's pounded hard enough to make his vision bleary for a few moments.

Adam can see that Matthew was taken by Anaconda, but he can't get passed Bushmaster to help him. However, James seemed to be up for the challenge. He had received a metal band from the case he had gotten. He wasn't exactly sure what kind of weapon his was, but what better time to try it out? James slammed his hand down on the two half-circle silver buttons on the middle of the band. The indented slightly as he pressed them. Metal rims coiled out in a circle, temporarily fitting together. Tangible Holographic flat blades filled the ends of the last rim, there were three of them. When the whole thing came together in about a total of four seconds, James realized that it was a _shield_. He guessed that the S.H.I.E.L.D higher ups really wanted him to take the whole Captain America motif pretty damn seriously.

James swung his arm and shield up to slash Anaconda's arm. It shorted out and the society member howled in anguish. Matthew took this small reprieve, to firstly be able to breath, but second take Anaconda's other arm, flip her over so hard that she was partially pounded into the ground. The boy looked at each other for a second before running off to join the rest of the fight, with oddly little fear among them.

Meanwhile, Alice was busy holding a society member named Copperhead at bay. She was doing actually really wall. He kept firing darts from scale print painted wrist bands. The darts undoubtedly held powerful venom inside them so Alice avoided them. She was moving miraculously fast and with ease around the snake. Although in all honestly Copperhead didn't really have any superhuman abilities, just some very interesting toys Viper had gifted to him. Alice was able to take him down without so much as breaking a sweat. However this wasn't the problem.

The others were all busy. Adam had taken down Bushmaster and was now on a society member named Cottonmouth, who was impossibly huge and had one foot long metal fangs, Adam wasn't a huge fan of that. Serena had managed to use her own abilities to wrap Coachwhip up in his own titanium links and was now battling against Cobra, a society member who had superhuman speed on a Captain America level as well as the ability to contort his reptilian body into just about any shape. Beyond that he was known for his MMA skills back before he was snake spliced. Needless to say Serena had her hands full, she was using her powers in every sort of creative way she knew how. Matthew and James had teamed up on Asp, an annoying mutant who had abilities of temporary paralysis. Whenever she would stun one of the boys, the other would move in to strike. It wasn't a bad system, though one that had to be maintained with the utmost diligence or else risking one of them being bitten and poisoned instantly. It must have been a mix of all these things that distracted the others enough to miss the notice of Alice becoming extremely overwhelmed in the fight. She was single-handed against Diamondback, Rattler and Princess Python. Princess Python wasn't really much of a challenge without her huge, mechanical snake that she had back in the day, though Diamondback had diamond cut throwing knives and Rattler had a large bionic tale that could mimic different vibrational frequency's. The guy was 85% def, so Alice was able to use that as a slight advantage, but it wasn't enough. Princess Python had shot at Alice with a pistol, which Alice didn't fully avoid and in grazed all the way down her right arm, reaching from her shoulder down to right above her wrist. Alice cried out and Diamondback jumps at Alice to plant a fatal bite on her neck. Fortunately for the young Russian, that blow never comes as Diamondback is impaled strait through with a long sharp-ended adamantium rod. It glistened in the sunlight. Diamondback slumped over, her corpse hanging limply around the metal staff. Viper hisses violently from her perch, where's she watching the battle. This will have been the first society member to have been killed in almost a decade and the blow was delivered by a masked girl.

Rattler takes the gingers moment of confusion to hastily slither over and bite Alice's left forearm. Alice shrieks as the pain instantly spreads through her arm and she falls limps.

Matthew's the first to register the scream and pinpoint it. He doesn't looks over at first, his body starts to move on its own as another seemingly dejected part of his mind takes over. It's a hybrid thing. He takes two of the titanium links that Coachwhip had on him and swings those suckers hard enough to take Princess Python and Rattler out of the way. He tightens his grip on the ends of the titanium whips to electrify it and the two society members he hit. Matthew didn't even know the weapon did that, but apparently some part of him did. Matthew was over to Alice in a flash, so fast his mind was still trying to catch up even visually. Matthew felt he was mostly just along for the ride at this point. The girl with the mask and hood pulled her rod out of the reptilian corpse and readied it again. More serpents where charging in by the minute now. Adam, Serena and James were sequestered to one area of the circle, far away from Matthew, Alice and the mystery woman. The snakes saw that Alice was down and were beginning to circle the group on the south side, going in for the kill. The mystery woman looks upwards and it caught Matthew's attention. It was a giant, rock piled colosseum they were in. It was almost like an arena. The walls were piled at least thirty- thirty-five feet high and one wall wasn't looking too sturdy. Matthew looked back at the masked girl and she nodded. He knew what he had to do. The serpents were charging in, Matthew got to his feet again quickly and forced up as much strength as he could possible muster. His veins absolutely burned and boiled as it felt like his blood turned to acid. Matthew let out a pained/determined yell as he swung down on the wall. The force of the single blow alone caused a chain reaction that brought down the entire place.

Adam looked over as soon as he heard the rumbling. Alice was hurt, someone unknown was there and Matthew had seemingly lost his mind. "NO!" Adam shouted, but the stones had crumbled and put a huge barrier between them.

Rocks, beams and other parts of broken building were crumbling all around them. Serpent Society members were hissing and crying out as things crashed around them. The masked woman brought Matthew back to reality by calling out.

"Come on!" She yells. Matthew's hands are still vibrating from the blow. He already felt mildly winded and almost sort of raw somehow after that big power surge that had just came through him, or rather came from him. Matthew shook his head and ran over to scoop up Alice right before a rock fell down and crushed her. "This way!" Shouted the mystery girl. Matthew was still in a mild daze and didn't hesitate to follow her instructions. She did manage to get them out after all.

The girl lead Matthew into a building that was better set up than every other building in this whole goddamn wasteland. They were alone and things were quiet and calm for the time being. Once Matthew was finally able to stop and actually breathe for a moment he realized how weak he suddenly felt now. Like all of that strength he'd had before had been completely sapped. "Easy there," said the girl with the black hood and mask "you're not looking so hot either. Wait you didn't get bitten too, right?"

"Um, no," Matthew answers after a few seconds "I don't think so." The girls nods approvingly almost. "I'm sorry, who the hell are you?" The girls pushes her hood back to reveal wavy, kinky blonde hair and she removes her mask and her blue eyes and pale face is shown.

"Names Luna and boy do I have so much to tell you, but maybe when we're not still in a crisis with her," says the blonde, gesturing to the quivering girl with the bloody mess of an arm "getting her stable might be a good idea."

* * *

"You blundering morons!" Viper hissed "all I asked was that you bite any of them! Any of them but the boy!" All the surviving society members were now in a pocket underground, like the snakes they were.

"But we did, my lady," says Rattler with a coy, fanged smile. There's blood trailing down from his chin and his eyes are wild with excitement and pleasure. "The girls blood was _amazingly_ pleasing." Viper quirked an eyebrow questioningly.

"I assumed that she was superhuman by her fight mannerisms. She was just too... impressive not to be."

"But what was she?" Asked Princess Python, using past-tense with the idea that the girl would be dead soon anyways if she wasn't already.

"I've only tasted such sweet blood like hers once before in my life. Something so satisfying; like Captain America."

"If this is true," Viper begins, moving up off her cobblestone throne "then now you'll have the strength to go after them. Follow the scent and trail of her blood." Rattler's reptilian expression changed to wildly excited and maybe even a little happily hysterical at this point. It would have been absolutely terrifying to any human.

"What am I to do with them?" Viper rolls her green slit eyes in minor annoyance.

"Kill them however you see fit, but whatever you do bring the boy back somewhat alive at least. I want- _Need_ more of what I took from him last time."

* * *

Matthew looked on dully at the two circular points on his forearm. They were still indented into his skin, most likely scared permanently. He hadn't remember really ever being bitten by one of them ever before, but apparently it had happened at some point. Matthew had lived in D.C his whole life and maybe it wasn't such a stretch that when the Serpent Society had come to try and take over D.C he could have been caught in the crossfire. He did recall his parent's saying that he'd been in some sort of accident, one that his grandpa Ross had saved him from. Matthew really didn't miss his parents all that much, he did however miss his grandpa. He was the only other person besides the group and S.H.I.E.L.D that knew he was different and opted to help him keep it a secret. In fact, he seemed to know about Matthew's own abilities before Matthew himself did.

Luna and Matthew had at least managed to cover and clean Alice's wounds, but the poison was still a major problem. "She's lasting a lot longer than others I've seen, but she'll only hold out for another two nights at most," Luna informs nervously.

"Oh shit," Matthew sighs incredibly anxious. He was in the middle of nowhere with no knowledge of where to go or what to do, fortunately for him, Luna was incredibly street smart in these parts. She explained to him, well, everything. About where the Vision was shacking up, about Adeline, the infinity stone, the Society, all of it and Matthew was astonished and completely mind blown. It took him several minutes to even begin to respond after Luna's explanation. "Why are you doing this? Trying to help me and her?"

"I'm not," Luna says and Matthew narrows his eyes and looks skeptically at her "I'm trying to get back at V for lying to me, wreaking havoc and kidnapping and holding my dear cousin against her will. I want him to pay a bit for that," she amends.

"So, I sneak Adeline out somehow, you'll save Alice?" Luna looks a little stunned by what he just said.

"I'm not bargaining your success on her life. I'm not cynical or something like that," Luna snaps, mildly appalled, "I will save your friend and then you'll save Adeline for me, get it?" Not at all, Matthew wants to say, but he doesn't. He has a feeling that Luna had some other motive at work here, but he can't find one. She's pretending that she wants Adeline gone purely for revenge, but Matthew could have sworn that she was trying to help Adeline. Luna had briefly mentioned living with Vision due to a lack of family, maybe this is why Adeline being freed was so important to her. Maybe.

"Okay," Matthew answers "how do we do this? I thought you said he was Um- Omn-?"

"Omnipotent," Luna clarify's "and yes he is, he might even have seen this whole conversation if he happened to be looking our way."

"Well shit," Matthew muttered.

"But," Luna starts again with a wild smirk "he can't see passed this," she says as she pulls a strange looking amulet or pendant out from under her skin tight black shirt. Matthew vaguely recognized the symbol upon it. It was oddly like the tatoo Adam had on the left side of his upper chest. The dark blue marking could be seen if the demi-god was wearing a tank-top or t-shirt. "I actually have no idea what it is, all I know is that I've been able to sneak some contraband into the house without him knowing as long as I've had it on." Luna promptly removes it from around her own neck and hands it to Matthew. "You wear this, no problems. Take it off and he'll be able to mentally find even a hybrid as strong as you." Matthew feels like he's just choked. His innards feel like they've constricted, but his heart keeps pounding anyways.

"What? Hybrid? I don't know what you're-"

"Chill, it's cool," she says, standing up off the granite floor of the building "I won't say anything. Not like I'd have anyone to pass it along to anyways. And for the record, you could try to make it less obvious."

"I don't make it that obvious," Matthew huffs as he too stands up, opting to let Alice lay and rest for a few more minutes before he hauls her up and starts going. Luna laughs at him.

"Yes, yes you do," she insists wryly "even to other meta-humans you don't seem quite right. I think sleeping beauty over here was starting to catch onto it too." Matthew sighs wearily. He knows that it's probably true, if a complete stranger figured it out within an hour of meeting him then it most likely was, but it was just so hard to try to hide and deny this hybrid, meta-human part of him.

* * *

The two went on for some time before they decided to take a short break. Alice was spiking a fever so they moved her out of the hot sun and doused her in some cold water. Meanwhile, whilst Luna was busy with all that, Matthew was trying to fix his com, which he'd broken again. He literally had a reputation at S.H.I.E.L.D now for always being the one to break or lose his com link. If nothing had happened to it, whenever he was about to ship out some agent would hand him a new one anyways.

Matthew scowled as his com link that was presently in his hands was far beyond repair, probably even with the legit tools he would have needed to fix it would still need to replace parts. Things were just going from bad, to worse, to worst. First they were attack, Alice was poison and was currently dying, Adam, James and Serena were nowhere to be found and Matthew was going to have to sneak passed some all powerful phantom being if he had any chance of saving both Alice or Adeline! During all Matthew frantic, anxious thoughts he started to work himself up so much that his innards starting to feel like they were heating up. Not as bad as it would have been during a fight, but just enough heat to cause a small twinge of pain. Matthew breathes out heavily and hangs his head downwards. Luna looks back from where she was tending to Alice. She catches on odd, almost illuminate greenish vein in Matthew's forearm. It's both cool and worrying at the same time. "How did you get like this?" Matthew turns his head back up and to the side to face Luna. Matthew shrugs after a moment, still twirling and playing with the broken com link with his fingers.

"I don't know, I guess I was just born like this," he answers with a ignorant shrug. Luna goes tense and stops what's she doing for about maybe two seconds before grinning and shaking her head.

"That's not even close to possible," she retorts surely. Matthew quirks an eyebrow, gazing confusingly at her.

"What do you mean?" Matthew inquires.

"Hybrids are made to be like they are," Luna says, going back to dousing Alice in cool water "not born." Luna's tone is wry and amused, she's almost laughing at his ignorance and nativity. It was borderline adorable. Luna's grin however fades when she glances back at the guy and see's his expression. He was being dead serious. Either he really believed that he was born that way or he actually was somehow... "You're a genesis," she states numbly and Matthew is so exasperatedly confused. "You've never heard of geneses have you." It's not a question, it was an obvious statement.

"No," Matthew answers, a little mentally intimidated by how this girl knew so much "what's a genesis?" As far as Matthew knew it was just a Latin word that meant 'origin'.

"V tells me that genesis superhuman's are the kids of the enhanced."

"...Enhanced?"

"Honest to god, do you actually know a damn thing about anything?" Luna snaps, but there's no legitimate harshness or venom behind the words. Matthew just rolls his eyes and opts to ignore her. "Enhanced; as in people who got all fucked up, like, on a genetic level." And that would mutant any kid(s) they'd have, Matthew put that together instantly, but what he couldn't possibly formulate was that he could possible be one of these geneses. Both of his parent's were human. His mother was about as normal as you could be. The very definition of it for crying out loud! And his stepfather- _Stepfather_. The phrase resounded in his mind. Step as in second marriage, after the fact, unrelated. Matthew had to have had some kind of Enhanced parent to be one of the geneses, right? His mother never EVER talked about his biological father. Not even once. The only thing she ever did to sort of mention him before was when Matthew heard his mother crying upset one night to Lenard. Matthew was fairly young at the time and Betty was a pretty different person back then. _"I can't do it,"_ she'd said the to Lenard _"he looks just like his father. Like **him**."_ At such a young age Matthew had no clue what that meant, all he did know was that he was sent off on an impromptu weekend away with his grandpa.

All of this meant nothing and everything. It was confusing, but beyond that it raised a particular question; Who the hell was he? This really was the worst possible time to be going through an extensional crisis.


	33. Episode 15 (Challenging Road Pt 3)

The Vision's house wasn't exactly like Matthew had imagined it in his head, although to be fair it could have been anything. Matthew didn't exactly know the guy and if he was lucky he wouldn't have to meet him either. He had three primary goals here. Number 1: Find Adeline, number 2: Save Alice and number 3: Make it out of this alive.

Matthew had dawned the amulet Luna had gave him the protected him from the Vision's all-seeing gaze and from his subtle, yet powerful, ability to touch the minds of others and understand everything around him... yeah, this guy was pretty terrifying.

Luna and Matthew had hidden Alice away on one of the bedrooms on the first floor in the old, enormous mansion. Matthew was worried about Vision sensing Alice here, but Luna informed him, by the state of Alice, that she was rocking back and force on the ledge of consciousness. Not as comforting of a fact as you might think, even with the small benefit it played on the situation.

While Matthew prepared to go off in his search for Adeline, Luna stayed back to try and search for the anti-dote for the venom. However worse came to worse when she found that there wasn't any that was made up. It took days to brew that shit together. Vision must have used the last of it on Luna herself when she got just a little to cocky with the society in these lands. It nearly cost her her life and now it might cost Alice's as well. Luna didn't know the girl, never even said one word to her before, had no idea what she was like, but hell would freeze over before she willingly let anyone die and spill their blood on her hands- Blood, Luna muttered in her own mind, that's it! Matthew had been bitten before, he survived, their must have been some kind of anti-bodies or immunity in his system. "I pray to god their you're type O," Luna said lowly to herself before switching directions and going off to find a syringe instead.

Matthew turned down another impossibly long hallway. He was getting to be feel a bit defeated at this point. Matthew stopped for a moment, pausing to lean over on a window sill. The glass was glossed over and foggy, but only a blind person would have missed the small trio of snake people staring menacingly at the exterior of the mansion. Matthew felt his heart leap in his chest. They'd followed them here. Matthew could only pray that Adam, Serena and James were right behind them, trailing the serpents as they were trailing him, Luna and Alice. Matthew took off again after a few seconds to gather his thoughts, searching like a mad man, Adeline had to be around here somewhere.

Matthew stopped when he suddenly feels a wave of major anxiety and exasperation. That feeling deep inside of him starts up again. His skins starts to crawl and he feels his blood and heart heating and revving up. He tries to stop it, but he's begging to think that it's a sensory thing he just can't control. Just another thing to add to the stupidly long hybrid listing. There's a sharp pain that seems to shoot all over Matthew's temples. He touches the spot and grimaces painfully, but the pain usually meant a bad thing. Matthew whipped around just as a serpent society member had leapt up at him. Matthew ducks under the charging enemy and Copperhead flies right into a wall.

"Idiot!" Curses one of the other society members. Matthew isn't even going to question how they'd manage to get up here so fast, he just starting running. Princess Python and Anaconda were in pursuit. Matthew has to find Adeline and get the hell out of here before he and Adeline become chew toys under a set of unbreakable venomous fangs. Matthew kept going, running down various halls with no clear direction. He'd left Princess Python and the brute Anaconda in the dust by now and was out of immediate danger. Though Matthew only paused when he heard a familiar sound and hiss.

 _Rattler_ , the one who bit Alice and threatened her life. She could Die because of him. Matthew felt and overwhelming sense of rage tear through him, it was unlike anything he'd even felt before. Blood was roaring in his ears and suddenly he just couldn't stop himself. Power and anger coursed through him like a strike of lightning. What kind of monster could take pleasure in the murder of a kid?! The hybrid wasn't even fully aware of what was happening, it was all just feeling and sensations. A numb, stinging sensation in his knuckles, a strange force that radiated up through his arm like a jolt, a hot sticky substance over his wrists and fingers, all things like this. Matthew wasn't sure how long all of this dragged on, time didn't seem to mean anything then. It was all lost in this psychically and mentally blinding pull of hate. When this feeling finally wore off, when the strange overpowering wave of rage had finally receded the boys vision cleared he could see his work. The bashed in and mangled form of what used to be Rattler. Matthew breath caught in his throat, he wanted to scream, to call out, cry out anything but he was completely stuck in this moment of sheer horror. He was trembling as he backed away. Rattler's mangled lifeless form slid off the wall and fell onto the stone floor, leaving a trail of blood, staining the old wallpaper of the house permanently. Blood continued to pour out of the ravaged serpent being. There was an alarming amount of blood pouring out so there shouldn't have been a dripping sound. Matthew's wide-scared eyes glanced down and remained stuck there. His hands held so much blood on them that it was dripping off his finger tips. Matthew was horrified with himself, he held his hands away from him and stared, quivering, looking at his own palms. Matthew's feet slowly scuffed backwards on the stone tile. He had to get out of here now. Matthew ran down the hallways again, running clumsily by each door. He stopped only when he saw a fountain in the middle of some huge foyer on the third floor. Matthew dashed over to it and fell to his knee's, leaning over the messily cut granite. It scratched his skin but he didn't care. Matthew plunged his hands into the water and the area around him was tainted red. Matthew scrubbed at his hands, trying so desperately to get all of the blood of. All of that damned blood...

Matthew splashed some water on his face and tried to catch his breath; he was hyperventilating. There he was screwing things up again in the worst possible ways. Murderer. He always seemed to have a knack for that according to most everyone he knew. Monster. How was he supposed to save Adeline in this condition? Useless. Why?! Why would he be born like this?! He needed to know why and no one could tell him.

"What have you done?" Asks a strange, calm voice. The tone isn't very questioning. It's a voice Matthew doesn't know so he whips around, eyes still wide and scared. It looks like a man, sorta, but the oddest looking man Matthew had ever seen with red and green skin, gold cape and gem. Could this be?...

"I didn't-..." Matthew didn't know why he felt the need to explain himself to this guy. He'd kidnapped Adeline, caused JP and the others a lot of pain, yet Matthew felt so intimidated under his gaze it was unnerving.

"No," he says, cutting off Matthew struggles "I know that you didn't intend to." The first thought Matthew had was ' _oh shit! He knows what I did!_ ' the second what that ' _he doesn't seem very... threatening..? Doesn't seem like someone who wanted to do something maliciously_.'

"You're the Vision?" The cyborg nods and starts to move 100% silently about the room. Matthew wonders if he's been around this whole time.

"Yes, that is one of my names," he answers, then switches gears in conversation "a hybrid child. It's so unfair to you." Matthew felt another wave of heat course through him.

"Was it you? Did you make me do that?!" Matthew shouts almost hysterically as he throws his hand back towards the large hall that led into this foyer.

"No," Vision answers evenly, moving his hands in calming, non-threatening gestures "I'm afraid that was something of your own." Matthew felt as if something was pressing down on him, crushing his lungs and disabling his ability to breathe. His expression was replaced with another level of horror, if that was even possible from before. "It's not in your nature, you have a good heart, I swear to you." _It's impossible for him to know this_ is what Matthew thinks but it's still somehow comforting to hear someone say it through the hysterics of his panic attack. "Rage, fear, and pain forage for a way to control you, you must fight it."

"Why? Why all of this? You took her! You're trying to warn me- I-I don't understand!" The boy cries out in anguish.

"I know," says Vision, still as calm as ever "listen carefully to me now. There is a great danger coming, one too powerful for any of you to face alone. Not one of you can survive without the other, I see that now, what you've risked and sacrificed to simply be here. I was hoping that I could take my precious daughter Adeline away, hold her here and defy a harrowing fate that lies ahead for her, but I cannot as much as I would like." Matthew's head had never been a bigger mess of information, emotional overload and pain. It was just too much for his 15 year old mind to comprehend. Vision walked closer to Matthew as he was lost in mind blowing thoughts. "I beg of you, keep her safe, guard her life with your own as others would do for you?" Matthew slowly nods, not sure what else he can do at this point. "Thank you." The Vision reaches his hands out and wraps his fingers around Matthew's head so that his thumbs are in the center of the boy's temples and the rest of his red fingers are pressed against the back. Matthew looks panicked. "Shh," whispers Vision lightly, now having an unbreakable hold over the young hybrids mind. "I am going to bind memories of this day until you might need them. This day will come soon, but for now you need much rest." That last word echoed into Matthew's mind and after a second he couldn't remember what had even transpired.


	34. Episode 16 (The Devil's Stride Pt 1)

**Previously on "Dangerous Games"...**

 _"N-no. This happened right before you first showed up and before Ms. Allure and before the earthquake and right before Jackson and-"_

 _"Slow down," Adam says, holding his hand out. This changed things a bit. It was all very plausible now that this could be a different extent of his abilities, although something that only served to panic him badly. Adam figured the kid must have felt like he was just laying in wait for something terrible to happened and no one would believe him otherwise before it was too late. "Just hang tight, take a deep breath, we'll figure this out," assures the demi-god._

 _"Somethings not right," Adam whispers to Serena._

 _"What do you think it is that is going to happen?" Serena questions. Matthew lets out a small pained noise and goes stiff as a board for a second. A moment later Alice shrieks, but it's short lived. The ginger springs up out of her chair and stares wide-eyes at the front of the jet. Adam's and Serena's gaze whip over to where she was looking. The pilot had some how been impaled with some sort of.. what the hell was that? A spike? They were in the goddamn sky! Either way the man was dead and the plane started to tip. Something crawled over the front of the windshield. Something with scales and a stiff tail. "What the hell was that thing?!" Alice whispers quietly, still in shock._

 _"Snake people," Alice mutters from where she's walking next to James "and I thought I'd seen everything." The teenaged girl thinks back to when she was first approached by S.H.I.E.L.D, when she'd met Sharon and Adam. Dimitri Akim, the dark matter meta-human that had almost killed her. Probably would have too if it weren't for Adam's god like powers. Alice was actually pretty bemused to find out that Adam actually was a demi-god._

 _"Worse," James whispers back "the Serpent Society isn't a joke. I saw the horribly high stacks of causality lists from their last raid on my Dad's desk." Though this raid was years ago it was still devastating. James thought it might have been around 2027 or so._

 _"Why hasn't anyone taken these bastards out?" Alice demands, though still speaking quietly and under her breath._

 _"I don't think that anyone can," James says very lowly._

 _"Then you know that her friends are walking right into the heart of the Serpent Society wastelands," Luna says bitterly. The Vision lulls Adeline into his partly mechanical arms and stands up. Luna's eyes widen marginally, still waiting for an answer._

 _"I am aware." Luna looks on at the being incredulously. He starts to make his wait out of the old-style kitchen, floating just above ground level._

 _"These people, whoever they are, came all this way to try and save her; risk their lives to protect you're daughter from what they think is danger. They knew exactly where they were headed, didn't they?" Vision sighs and nods._

 _"Adeline sent a telepathic plea to one of them, yes. They more than likely followed that." Luna shakes her head and looks down almost sadly._

 _"They were willing to lay down their lives for your daughter," Luna says lowly "how can you just watch them die?"The Vision looks wearily once at Luna before turning around and descending out of the room once more._

 _"I won't look."_

 _Rattler takes the gingers moment of confusion to hastily slither over and bite Alice's left forearm. Alice shrieks as the pain instantly spreads through her arm and she falls limps._

 _While Matthew prepared to go off in his search for Adeline, Luna stayed back to try and search for the anti-dote for the venom. However worse came to worse when she found that there wasn't any that was made up. It took days to brew that shit together. Vision must have used the last of it on Luna herself when she got just a little to cocky with the society in these lands. It nearly cost her her life and now it might cost Alice's as well. Luna didn't know the girl, never even said one word to her before, had no idea what she was like, but hell would freeze over before she willingly let anyone die and spill their blood on her hands- Blood, Luna muttered in her own mind, that's it! Matthew had been bitten before, he survived, their must have been some kind of anti-bodies or immunity in his system. "I pray to god their you're type O," Luna said lowly to herself before switching directions and going off to find a syringe instead._

 _ **Rattler,**_ _the one who bit Alice and threatened her life. She could Die because of him. Matthew felt and overwhelming sense of rage tear through him, it was unlike anything he'd even felt before. Blood was roaring in his ears and suddenly he just couldn't stop himself. Power and anger coursed through him like a strike of lightning. What kind of monster could take pleasure in the murder of a kid?! The hybrid wasn't even fully aware of what was happening, it was all just feeling and sensations. A numb, stinging sensation in his knuckles, a strange force that radiated up through his arm like a jolt, a hot sticky substance over his wrists and fingers, all things like this. Matthew wasn't sure how long all of this dragged on, time didn't seem to mean anything then. It was all lost in this psychically and mentally blinding pull of hate. When this feeling finally wore off, when the strange overpowering wave of rage had finally receded the boys vision cleared he could see his work. The bashed in and mangled form of what used to be Rattler. Matthew breath caught in his throat, he wanted to scream to call out, cry out anything but he was completely stuck in this moment of sheer horror. He was trembling as he back away. Rattler's mangled lifeless form slid off the wall and fell onto the stone floor, leaving a trail of blood, staining the old wallpaper of the house permanently. Blood continued to pour out of the ravaged serpent being. There was an alarming amount of blood pouring out so there shouldn't have been a dripping sound. Matthew's wide-scared eyes glanced down and remained stuck there. His hands held so much blood on them that it was dripping off his finger tips. Matthew was horrified with himself, he held his hands away from him and stared, quivering, looking at his own palms. Matthew's feet slowly scuffed backwards on the stone tile. He had to get out of here now. Matthew ran down the hallways again, running clumsily by each door. He stopped only when he saw a fountain in the middle of some huge foyer on the third floor. Matthew dashed over to it and fell to his knee's, leaning over the messily cut granite. It scratched his skin but he didn't care. Matthew plunged his hands into the water and the area around him was tainted red. Matthew scrubbed at his hands, trying so desperately to get all of the blood of. All of that damned blood..._

* * *

 ** _I was told all of this after..._**

 _2 weeks ago._

"Matthew?!" Luna shouted again trying to wake the seemingly unconscious boy. He was somehow passed out in one of the large foyers of the mansion. His pale form was just laying down flat on the tiled floor. There was some lingering blood on Matthew's hands which instantly made Luna nervous. She of course immediately checked for serpent bites, but couldn't find any except for the old scared one. He seemed psychically untouched except for some mild bruising on his knuckles. So why wasn't he waking the hell up? Luna figured that as long as Matthew seemed healthy and alive, his heart was beating just fine, she better get to saving the others life. She wasn't nearly as stable at this time. Luna was pretty sloppy with the syringe, but she knew the basis of what she was doing and managed to pull enough blood from a vein in his arm. As soon as the syringe was filled she slipped it into he the inner pocket of her black jacket. She then began frantically shaking the kid again. The mansion was becoming over run with serpent people, how they'd managed to find this place- Luna shuddered at the thought. She pried Matthew's eyelids open and her eyes narrow at the sight. His pupils and all around them are glossed over with an almost shimmering blue. She moved her hand back, but the boys eyes still remained open. "Shit!" Luna cursed. His mind was somewhere else, it was almost trance-like. There were only two people with mental manipulation abilities that Luna knew were here and she could rule out one immediately.

Vision had done something to him.

"We do not have time for this," Luna says, dragging the hybrids body up and she was able to get him to clumsily balance on his feet. Luna slung one of his arms around her shoulders and began to guide his prone form away. Whatever mental illusion Vision had stuck him in was starting to wear off and Matthew was very slowly becoming more aware. He was blinking again and his body was starting to twitch every now and again, proving he was starting to come back to his own. Luna had to yank Matthew back a few times when she saw more serpents, it was an annoying long route, but she eventually got where she was headed. Luna kicked open the door and Adeline whipped around from where she was looking out the window. Her silver eyes went wide and she gasped in horror, imagining the worst. "Don't just stand there, princess, get the fuck over here and help me with him!" Adeline rushed over to him and helped Luna get him down on the bed.

"What happened to him?!" Was the first question Adeline frantically managed to ask.

"I don't have time to explain, just watch him and whatever happens do not let anyone through that door!" And with that Luna runs out. Adeline is stunned for a few minutes. Literally. She kneels down on the side of the bed and starts to look Matthew over. What's wrong with his eyes? They're a hazy light blue and the illuminate coloring stretches out further than his pupils did. This didn't seem good.

Adeline hesitated for the longest time, the last time she'd done this... well... she'd nearly fried someone's own mind, but she didn't feel like she had any other choice right now. She gently laced her hands around Matthew's head, her thumbs pressed against his temple. Matthew, though barely conscious to the psychical world, shuddered at the familiarity of the form of touch. "Matthew... I have no idea if you can hear me, but if you can I need you to try and keep your mind blank and just-.. just try and relax.." Silver lights shimmer around Matthew's head and into his eyes. He moans and squirms a bit, but nothing too jolting that it broke Adeline's concentration. Eventually the blue in Matthew's eyes seem to shatter and break apart. Matthew lets out a small cry of pain, but that's it. A small trail of blood starts to pour out of his nose and Adeline's worried that she may have hurt him somehow. She prayed that she didn't because he came for her.

_Dangerous Games_

 ** _I was told all of this after I woke up about a whole three weeks later from the Vision's infliction, apparently I'd missed a lot..._**

"To stone?" Adam questions sounding completely incredulous at Maria. "Cold, hard stone?"

"Exactly. And it's not just the skin it's everything about them, their blood, organs, tissue," the distraught agent answers. Adam looks at the photos on the screen in the main control room. He shakes his head.

"I've never seen anything like this," he says lowly "I'm sorry, but I really don't know."

"Well I have a feeling someone did," Maria suggests and Adam knows that she's referencing back to a prior conversation of theirs.

"You think Vision told Matthew something, but trying to wake him up is dangerous." Maria scoffs almost angrily.

"So is leaving him unconscious for too long and allowing people to be murdered by stone catalysts's, Foster." Adam sighs and looks possibly more conflicted than he's even been in recent history.

"I know," Adam answers with an exhausted tone of voice. It's all been a very long week.

* * *

"So far nothing's been strong enough to help him shake it," Serena answers grimly as she walks with Adam down the halls of the medical facility at S.H.I.E.L.D HQ to her office. Adam can't help but grin even slightly at her speech patterns.

"Shake it? Is it my imagination or am I finally rubbing off on you?"

"Lord, let's hope not," Serena says with a small smirk. Adam puts on an expression of mock hurt and feigns dramatically.

"Oh, and here I thought you'd finally changed." Serena's eyes go wide and she hauls Adam into her office and shuts the door quickly, but quietly. Her facial expression is twisted into anger and fear, but even more than that it's desperation.

"We are not going to talk about _that_ ," she hisses. Adam holds his hands up.

"I wasn't going to. Odd though how you'd naturally assume that I was referring to that." Adam wiggles her eyebrows suggestively. Serena scowls.

"Adam-"

"I'm pretty sure James caught on, I mean, he was there. Good, naive, kid though, wouldn't tell anyone."

"Adam!-.. God, can you not even focus when a a kids life is at stake?" Serena voices emotionally and that's not something Adam's heard out of her in a long time. Maybe even ever.

"... I make shit jokes when I'm under pressure. Between Matthew and Maria, Adeline, freaky stone catalyst's and the goddamn Vision. I'm hanging off a ledge on my finger tips, guess I couldn't really expect any good news." Serena sighs and sets her clipboard down. Her right wrist had a brace on it from the arena fight. Adam doesn't like the sight of it. They'd almost lost Alice. They would have too if it weren't for some strange mystery girl. She'd disappeared afterwards, not to be heard of. S.H.I.E.L.D couldn't pin down a motive for her, but Adeline had a hunch. However, Adam had a hard time believing anyone was good just for the sake of good. He didn't believe something as incredible as that could survive in the world they lived in.

"I'm sorry.. I can't give you that. I can give you a solution.. and a problem," Serena speaks lowly. Adam rubs his hands over his face tiredly.

"Good news bad news type deal?"

"Uh huh."

"Wonderful," Adam adds sarcastically. He hit a filing cabinet over in his stress and anger "what is it?"

"I think I've found a rare chemical compound to wake Matthew up. Now, if my theories are correct, it should boost his nervous system to knock whatever's keeping him under out and psychically restore his body and give him enough of an edge to take control back."

"No kidding?" Adam says, pinching the bridge of his nose "that does sound too good to not have a catch... What compound is it?" Serena hesitated. Also very unlike her. She must really be going out on a limb here if she was nervous to admit her theory to even Adam.

"H-364." Adam jolted and stared at her wide-eyed like she was absolutely, 100%, asylum worthy insane.

"H-364? H-36 fucking 4?! Serena-"

"I know what it is, Adam, but he can handle it-"

"You don't know that!" Adam rages, more worried that he's been in a while and that surely said something. "Nobody. Nobody on the goddamn planet is strong enough to not be permanently internally affected by that stuff! Only four people have actually survived getting a dose of H364 and look at what it did to them!-"

"Please, Adam, keep your voice down. I know the scores!" Serena exclaims, but in hushed tones. Adam barely listens or complies.

"-And look at what it did to their own slivers of humanity. Look at what it did to Blonsky or Lorenzo, both went on a fucking rampage! There's only one person on this entire earth that I know of that kept only even half of his humanity from that shit!"

"Then Matthew's got a really good chance!" Serena yells, loudly, over Adam.

"How the hell did you come to that conclusion?! Hm?!"

"It's half his own blood too!" Adam shut up and looked at Serena incredulously, but also taken aback so far from this. "Adam," Serena walks closer to the distraught demi-god "I, um.. I did some digging, like you asked me to, when Matthew first came here. A lot of digging really.. S.H.I.E.L.D has reason to think that Matthew... Is _his_ son." Adam stumbled back and covers his own mouth in pure shock and with all that he's seen he was not one to shock easily, but he was taking a lot of hits to that statement today. A lot of hits.

"He never had children. I thought he and the Black Widow-" Serena shakes her head, seemingly just as astonished as Adam and she's probably known about all of this for a while.

"That's what we thought. That's what everyone thought, but just look into his eyes, it's all there." Adam shakes his head and looks away.

"No, no, just no. Everyone whose had H-364 in their systems, but it's already been in him this whole time, hasn't it." Serena nods and wills herself to remove her emotional side from this, but in truth it was her feelings and care for the poor kid that convinced her to risk all this in the first place.

"It has. It really just explains everything. How he was so fast, so strong, how his body could adapt to pretty much everything that was thrown his way."

"But that's not true," Adam states firmly, leaning against the door "there's only one thing that's managed to keep him down thus far. Himself." Serena looks away, worried, she knows the scores and the risks, but those numbers were already high on the charts. They weren't going to decrease any now. "He gets a dose of H-364 and it could tear him apart from this inside out. Turn his blood acidic, melt his tissue, fry his cerebral reasoning to the core and this is only the basis of the stuff I've read about."

"Adam.. His body is shutting down anyways. If we don't do something he will die."

* * *

"Adeline?" James questions as he see's Adeline at the top of the octagon house. Literally, on the solid part of the roof, not the glass part which was the ceiling to Adam's personal suite. He had seen her whilst coming back from a late night training session with his personal S.O. James shivered from the cold that night. It was mid-October after all. "What are you doing out here?" Adeline just shakes her head and doesn't answer. James really was too good of a guy to leave her out here alone, he worried about her being depressed over something by the way she was acting, so he walked over and sat down beside her near the edge of the roof, saying nothing for a while, waiting for her to either start talking or until she got tired and left the roof's ledge.

"Do you remember last week?" James nearly scoffs, but he doesn't because how is that really going to help?

"Of course. I couldn't exactly forget now, could I?" Adeline breathes in shakily and then lets out a long, pent up, sigh.

"Matthew's still under," she states numbly. She wraps her white arms around herself ans shivers marginally just by thinking about what she could have done. James mistakes this for her being cold and shrugs off his jacket and offers it to her. He was wearing a long sleeve T underneath it anyways and Adeline was only clad in her upper body with a thin, white, tank top that she usually slept in. He lays it over Adeline's shoulder and the girl quickly pulls her arms into the large sleeves. It's too big for her, but the warmth and comfort of it is greatly accepted. Adeline shivering starts to lessen. "I think I-..." James furrows his brows incredulously.

"What? No, no you had nothing to do with that. It was Vision, remember? You said he did something to him." Adeline shakes her head which only confuses James more.

"No. I mean, well, yes. Vision did do something to Matthew, but... I thought. I didn't feel right. When I.. tried to sync up with his mind to remove whatever Vision placed.. it wasn't.. hostile." James just stared awkwardly at Adeline and blinked aimlessly.

"Yeah... I don't follow."

"Whatever he did wasn't hurting Matthew. He was partly coherent and was coming to.. then I.. messed with things."

"Stop," said James, holding his hands out. His tone was nearly commanding which was not something that was heard out of James often. "We do not know that for sure. We're all blaming ourselves here, I know Adam and Serena are still beating themselves up, along with Alice. We could go around assigning blame to everyone, because everyone played a part in what happened to him, or we could try to find a way to reverse it."

"I know..." Adeline trailed off.


	35. Episode 16 (The Devil's Stride Pt 2)

"What do you mean there's no plan to save him?" Alice hissed, completely astonished to the small party there. Members including Maria Hill, Adam, Agent Weaver and Agent Calderon, whom both had flown in from D.C. They were all supposed to be discussing the catalyst crisis, but Alice and inexplicably barged in, which was really unlike her.

"Miss Belova, this really isn't the time or place," Maria warns lowly. She understands Alice's distress. Matthew had gotten damaged like he was trying to save Adeline and Alice, though James was given all of the glory and yet even he rejected most of it. Sure, he'd initially been the one to get them all out, but that never could have been done without Matthew's sacrifice as everyone had later said. He was the one who met face to face with the Vision and provided enough of a distraction, as everyone thought, for James to find Adeline and Alice while Serena and Adam held of the society members.

"He is dying, didn't anyone give any thought to this?!" She yells and Maria earns certain looks from both Weaver and Calderon.

"The standard treatment method is still viable. Using anything too extreme could do more damage," agent Weaver states logically, but this isn't satisfying Alice.

"Thus shooting down the idea for H-364," Adam says dryly, speaking up for the first time since Alice's sudden outburst. Every agent in the room cringed at the mere mention of the vile compound. Alice would have noticed this to if she wasn't already so pissed.

"What's H-364? And if it can save him why the fuck aren't you using it?!"

"The stuff is volatile, that's why, do you want your teammate to get worse?" Agent Calderon snaps harshly at Alice, clearly not at all amused by her interruption or the problem she was presenting.

"If it even has a chance-"

"The stuff would kill him and mold his remains into something unimaginable," Calderon booms, even Weaver is astonished about what's just come out of his mouth. What a horrid thing to say to a young, distraught girl.

"You don't know that," Weaver says, even though she's still 100% against using the H-364. Calderon flashes Weaver a hard look. Calderon was always such a damned hot-head.

"It's time she, and every other soldier on her team, saw some sense."

"They are not soldier and they are not agents, they're KIDS," Adam greatly emphasizes. Calderon was about one more inch from completely rising off his seat.

"Causalities are plausible and will happen!" Calderon screams and jumps up out of his seat.

"And where do you suggest our resources are better spent? This boy risked everything to save lives," Maria says sternly. This amount of aggression and hate is strange, even for Calderon. Her and Adam exchange looks, but go no further in their silent communications.

"And there are a million other freaks like him out there, just pull in another one into the program! And you," Calderon rages, moving a little closer to Alice "you best realize that this is how life is in the field!"

"He saved my life!" Alice screams, that was something nobody else besides Adam had done for her. Even her own mother had left her to fend for herself when she was threatened. Character building or some shit. Though one thing Alice had to agree with her mother on was when you owed someone. It was one of the worst things ever Yelena would say and now Alice understood it. Being at the mercy and indebted to someone you owed your life to changed everything. "I won't let him die!"

"I'm afraid our options are very limited," explains agent Weaver before Calderon can even open his mouth again. Even she had to admit this wasn't the man she'd worked with all this time.

"Then use the H-3- Whatever it was!"

"Have you got sand in your ears?! That shit ruins people! Your teammate will be as good as dead already the minute he gets that stuff inside of him! Hell, I'd put that thing down myself!"

"Agent Calderon! That is enough!" Maria shouts loudly.

"You- You should be ashamed of yourselves! All of you!" Alice stammers is complete distress. Calderon angrily stalks over to Alice. Too close. Maria rises to her feet out of anticipation, but Adam's already over to Alice, standing in front of her, back facing Calderon.

"It's okay, I'll handle this," Adam says over his shoulder.

"Is this how you let your recruits speak to you?!" Calderon boom, gesturing wildly to both Adam and Alice. His statement is directed towards Maria. "I'll never know why the Directer left someone with your level of incompetence in charge here!"

"Agent Foster said would handle it!" Maria says very lowly and very dangerously. The things she was about to do to Calderon. Maria flashed Adam a quick look and nod and so Adam took that and dragged Alice out into the hall outside the meeting room. The shouting between the head Agent and Calderon had gone underway before he'd even completely left the room.

"How can you just let them do this, Adam?!" Alice screams and Adam tries to shush her since other agents are walked across the long hallway connected to this one. It's shaped like a T with the vertical hall leading only to the meeting room.

"Alice, stop-"

"He didn't just save me, he saved you and Serena and James too and you're leaving him for dead!"

"Alice!" Adam snaps loudly as he grabs her shoulders tightly, almost enough to inflict damage "if you would listen for one second you'd realize that hell will freeze over before I let that happen." Alice stops speaking and looks directly into Adam's sky blue eyes, trying to see if he's lying. He wasn't. "Tonight I'm going to steal the H-364." Alice looks on still, wide-eyed.

"...What?" Adam leans in slightly closer and speaks very, very quietly.

"S.H.I.E.L.D has a hidden bunker underneath NYC. Funny how it'd be there, but I guess that's the least suspecting place and the best armed."

"I should do it," Alice says suddenly "I should be the one to steal it. I'm faster and stealthier than you, I could-"

"No," Adam cuts her off as soon as he wraps his mind around what she's saying "it's dangerous. Hell, it's almost suicide."

"I know what danger is, Adam, I have been on the opposite side of mentally incapacitated meta-humans, machine guns, even poisonous snake people for gods sake!" Adam just shakes his head.

"You have not seen anything this life has to offer yet," he states sternly and in such a way that Alice knows it to be true. Adam had probably seen and done a while heck of a lot more than she has, but this was personal. "Why are you so obsessed with this?" Alice twists the ring on her finger round.

"I owe him... my life," she hisses and if saying it actually causes her pain "in the world... my mother-" Alice pauses to gather her tormenting thoughts. "There is no honor with that woman. Never, ever, has been. I know that she has killed and hurt so many people without a thought, but there was one line she never crossed; if someone saves your life you owe them that life. That's how it is and you do anything to repay it. It's something, a mindset, that I just can't shake." Adam doesn't exactly know how to react or respond to this. Among every other kid in the group, Alice had never opened up to anyone about anything and especially not anything about her mother. Adam would have liked to have said that it was just a sore subject or something, but he knows it's much more. Given what Sharon Rogers had said all those months ago Adam wondered how a woman like Yelena Belova would have treated a child. Even her own.

"Saving him is priority one," Adam assures her "you can help by continuing to act just as you did before, not letting anyone know that anything is different in your mind. Can you do that?" Adam knows he seems a bit patronizing and that's not something one needed to be around someone the Alice and yet the girl nods her head.

"Yes. I can." Adam makes a small noise of affirmation.

"Good."

* * *

"Rori?" Asks Canary from the doorway of the younger girls room "what are you doing?" Rori zips up a small suitcase with various things inside.

"I'm taking a trip home for a few days. I only live an hour away, S.H.I.E.L.D permitted it and everything, I just need some space is all," Rori explains quickly. Too quickly actually.

"Oh," Canary starts "and you're sure that this has nothing to do with what we over-heard Adeline and James talking about?" Rori turns around to face the human member of their group.

"Look, I have no idea what's going on. With any of this. One day everything's fine, the next Adeline goes missing, Alice gets poisoned, impossible cyborg beings predict our deaths and people start getting turned to stone. This- this is just too crazy for any of us. I need to get a hold on something." Canary scuffs her black boots against the floor.

"Are you coming back?" She asks. Canary isn't even going to bring up the fact that Rori wasn't even directly involved with any of the chaos that's been going on. She figures that won't help and will only be precised as insulting. Though it's true what Adam said, something that impacts a few of them impacts all of them in other varying degrees.

"Yeah, I-... Think so." Canary nods and moves forward, walking into the room to hug the former. When she lets go she's putting on a fake grin.

"Go home, unwind, hopefully by then we'll have found a way to unravel this whole mess." Rori nods and grabs her back.

"Yeah. Hopefully." And with that the youngest member of the group heads off. She walks to a certain point away from H.Q where she has a car waiting for her. She gets in and drives three hours outside NYC to a smaller city still in state, New Rochelle. The young fourteen year old looks out of the car window as the bustling city comes into view. The car finally stops at a busy street corner which Rori asked the driver to do instead of taking her to her destination. Rori yanks her suitcase out of the back and pays the man. "Do me a favor, don't tell anyone about this."

"Do I ever?" Responds the male driver. Rori smiles as he starts to roll up the window.

"Thanks, Terry," Rori says with a light wave. He's been her driver for as long as Rori started going anywhere alone. So, since her first day of preschool. Her parent's were always... busy and sometimes seemed like they just couldn't be bothered. Rori's Dad was always distant to say the least, something that happened back in 2015 that he won't talk about, but Rori already knows. Rori's Mom still runs what's known as the second biggest company in the world, Stark Industries, so she's always busy. Rori's brother Connor moved out several days after he turned 18, ultimately leaving the young girl on her own for most of her life; there was a whole nine years between them. However, as fate would have it something happened to her that would set her on a new life with new, strange people.

So how was it that the nine year old girl was born with an inbred version of Extremis? Nobody knew and Rori never let anyone know... except one couple who found out.

Rori knocked out the door of a huge building out near the warehouse district. The door was promptly answered immediately. The man in the doorway was average height with chocolate brown eyes and black hair. His skin was black as well. He looked a little startled, but at the same time smiled widely. "Aurora?"

"Hey, Ace," Rori greeted. He immediately stepped aside to let her in. The front rooms were like any ordinary house, but the level part way sunk beneath the first floor was quite an impressive lab owned by Dr. Ace Peterson, a surprisingly knowledgeable scientist on all things Extremis. Rori knew the stories, Ace told them to her once he thought she was old enough to know. Ace's father, Mike Peterson, apparently was a test subject for a low-grade, untested, dangerous version of the Extremis drug, one that nearly got him and others killed on several occasions. Ace, as a boy, had seen some of this and swore that when he got older he was going to study this and try to find a way to stabilize it. Ace however, never saw his Dad again after a particularly bad run in with Hydra. Ace knew his Dad was alive somehow from encoded messages from S.H.I.E.L.D from some woman named Daisy Johnson.

Fortunately for Rori, the immunization drug Ace invented worked like charm. Even an inbred version like Rori had was volatile and dangerous and in the shaky hands of a little girl, almost caused her own demise. Rori grew really close to the Peterson's. Ace and his wife Vanessa were great. Vanessa was probably the sweetest person Rori had ever met in her entire life. She was kind and thoughtful. Rori had hardly ever known her to raise her voice, and she and Ace complimented each other perfectly. Vanessa was 100% supportive to all the crazy and dangerous sorts of research Ace had delved into. It really was too bad that Vanessa was, sadly, barren. Rori just knew that Vanessa would have made the best mother ever. Rori sometimes wished and fantasized of her life if Ace and Vanessa were her parent's, but that was all just a wishful fantasy.

"I, um, really wasn't expecting to see you anytime soon. When I last talked to you on the phone you seemed pretty shaken," Ace says and he offers for Rori to sit down on one of the chairs in the living room. She does promptly.

"I know, it's just-.. Things at _school_ have been more than crazy lately. So much going on."

"In the outside world," Ace finishes with a hint of mild worry in his tone "you're safest with S.H.I.E.L.D. Not here."

"I'm not safe with S.H.I.E.L.D either now, Ace," Rori says sadly and shakily. Ace sits down across from her and places his hands comfortingly on her shoulders.

"Aurora.. what's happened?" Rori says nothing for a moment, the second her eyes lock with the older mans they drop down to the floor. There is utter silence. Only a few moment's after does Rori begin to quiver and her eyes water. She's crying now. Right there. In front of the only man she really trusts.

"So-so much has happened, Ace. P-people are dying, my friends, someone's coming after us and everyone." Ace hides his look of fear and shock until after he pulls the sobbing girl tight to his chest and wraps his arms around her.

"It'll be okay," he says, lying as well as he possibly can "it'll be okay."

* * *

"You ready for mission impossible?" Adam asks softly over his com link. He's scaling the building from high up in the sky. "Actually, this doesn't look so bad."

" _What?!_ " Comes the pitched, confused voice of Serena over the com link in his ear. Adam cringes. He taps the small device with his index finger.

"I said this doesn't look so bad!" Adam practically yells so the device can pick it up. He figures why be so quiet when he's a few hundred feet in the air?

" _Maybe if you consider doesn't look so bad to be laser grids, heat sensors, MH gene trackers, armed security guards, automatic sentry's and- oh yeah- a one foot, reinforced titanium safe with a retina scanning, fingerprint sensing pad lock_."

"Hey, this was your idea," Adam challenges as he starts to descend even so slowly.

" _Diplomatically,_ " Serena says exasperatedly. Adam smirks and even though Serena can't see it, Adam knows that she can just sense and hear the smirk in his voice.

"Not exactly second-nature to me, sweetheart." Adam suppresses a laughs when Serena nearly groans.

" _Don't call me **sweetheart**_." Adam fails and holding back the full extent of his laughter and shoots down towards the ground. However, he lands with the utmost subtlety.

"Give me a rundown of the floor plan," Adam says, tapping the com in his ear.

" _There's an elevator shaft just inside. It's only activated by a employee's I.D badge, which you clearly don't have._ "

"Clearly," Adam answers quieter now. He's making his way covertly towards the facility building itself. A H.Q for a supposed humanitarian organization and it appeared that way on the outside, but it was far to decked out to be a privately owned place and be running this well when neither Adam nor Serena had ever heard of it. After doing some extensive digging it was discovered that it was owned by S.H.I.E.L.D, but their name specifically was not on the lease. Of course it wouldn't be, but eventually it led back to a name: Clark Gregg, which was a fake identity for the man himself: Phil Coulson.

" _It's 5:56 am now. All security swaps out at 6:00 am exactly, that's when you're going to swipe a card and Adam, for all things good and holy, do not be late_." Adam shakes his head and says subtly while looking around to make sure no way is looking his way.

"I thought you'd have a little more faith in me than that, miss Grey."

" _Well, I couldn't exactly come myself,_ " Serena says irritably. Adam's tone takes a very serious turn.

"And why is that?" Serena paused and she never got to answer. It was go time. Adam made his way into the building with the other rush of agent's coming in for their shifts. Adam was nervous when he saw guards checking I.D's at the front. "Identity crisis here," Adam mutters.

" _It's okay, I've got this already set up, just hand them your own I.D_."

"What?" Adam sad incredulously "I don't know about you, but I really don't want to obviously implicate myself in this." Even though he was quite obviously involved.

" _I thought you'd have more faith in me, Mr. Foster,_ " Serena mocks wryly. Adam cocks an eyebrow and pulls out his own card.

"You're not flirting with me, are you?"

" _Let's just stay focused on the task at hand._ " Adam hands his card off and things go off without a hitch. It's, somehow, accepted into the database and Adam is let in. Clearly all by Serena's doing. It is amazing what she can do from a laptop in Matthew's room in the S.H.I.E.L.D med bay of all places.

"Words to live by from you I'd imagine."

" _Adam._ "

"Sorry... Which way do I head now?"

" _The main staff locker room is to the left, about twenty-five feet from you_ ," Serena explains. Adam follows her directions without questions. The words themselves barely even process. " _Once you're there you're going to have to pick the lock of one of the lockers. Their all pad locked. Electronic, so that shouldn't be a problem for you, but as soon as an I.D goes missing, this place is going to be on alert. They take security very, very seriously here._ "

"Then I'm willing to bet that a bottle of Hulk juice isn't the only thing they've got stored up in here," Adam nearly whispers at this point. He enters the locker room. Tons of different men and women are here and none of them are really speaking to each other so Adam is able to slip by easy enough. Being born half god-alien, you learn to adapt to your surrounding, even if you look human there are always giveaways, especially to people like this. Adam picks a locker towards the back. One quick little spark with his thumb and the thing shoots open. Adam pockets the I.D badge and walks off. He's just happy that the badge is bar coded rather than photo I.D.

" _You've got that right. Years and years and years of S.H.I.E.L.D findings are locked in these sub-level cellars. Fortunately no one's been able to make off with anything. Bad news for us, however_."

"Yes, but could any of those lowlife's fly?" Serena doesn't answer that. Instead she moves right on ahead.

" _Take the elevator shaft towards the back right. It's a quieter route tot he sub-floors from what I can tell._ " Adam does exactly that. It only take him a few minutes. His body language and the way he carries himself is impressive. Not only as part Asgardian does he carry an aura of intimidation- literally, it's no joke- but he also held his insecurities tight inside and not one of them ever became visible. He doesn't have any trouble moving passed people subtly and once he's down in the sub levels, it's more than quiet. This must be where most all of the automated defenses are. Fortunately, electronics weren't a challenge for him. One wave of his hand and it was offline for the amount of time that it took for Adam to run by. Serena warned him that anything longer than seven seconds would seem suspicious. Otherwise it could just be seen as restart glitches and be brushed off, however, coupled with the fact that and I.D has gone missing as well, probably not, so Adam needed to hurry. Getting down to the safe was easy and breaching it, not so bad either. Adam yanked the small device out of the seems of his jacket. He simply attached it to the side of the titanium safe and if began to drill a small hand-sized hold using laser tech. Now they played the waiting game. As soon as the small device stopped whirring and clicked off, Adam pulled a single glove out from his pants pocket and slipped it on. He gently reached in and removed the vial. Not alarms went off. At least, none that he could hear and Serena hadn't warned him of any silent alarms, so all seemed well.

That is until a gunshot went off.

Adam cried out and fell forward, clutching his right shoulder. His dominate arm. "I knew you'd be here," sneered a particularly nasty voice. Adam was leaned up against the titanium safe, but he forced his body to turn so that he could face his attacker.

"Calderon," Adam says, wondering if his eyes are somehow betraying him. How the hell had Calderon gotten here so fast? And how did he know Adam would be here at this time? The gun was still pointed squarely at Adam. Had he been waiting for him?

"Thieving shit," the agent sneered darkly. He was acting much worse than before, just by the way he carried himself, the way he clung to his gun, the expression of pure rage and hatred that he wore on his face.

"If you wouldn't do the same for somebody you cared about, then you're already dead, no human being that's for damn sure." Adam grunted painfully as his sudden jerking movement upwards caused the bullet to sink deeper into his tough flesh.

"Oh, but I'm not," said Calderon darkly. Adam was completely lost an his confusion and fear only grew when Calderon's eyes flit 100% black all over and smiled grimly right before a hole was punched strait through his chest. Calderon gasped, but had a blank look on his face as he fell to the ground. Motionless. The man that stood behind him was grim looking. With his ghostly pale skin, black hair and black illuminating irises. He couldn't have been older that Adam, in fact he was probably a year younger.

"I'll be needing that," he says, gesturing to the vile and his voice was hollow. Empty, like speaking into a tunnel and the echo was nearly deafening. He held out a pale hand and dark mists accumulated over Adam's gunshot wound. Adam cried out painfully and fell to his knees as the bullet was torn out of him. The bullet shot into the dark man's hand. He held it up between his thumb and index finger and examined it. "Ah, I must have nicked a vein. Points to me." Adam tried to get up, but the amount of blood spilling through his fingers was alarming. The dark man walks over and crouches down in front of Adam. "Don't worry, I'm not going to finish you off. I couldn't. After all, we're cousins in non-human blood, right?" He smiles, but there's no warmth in it. In fact, it made Adam feel cold. The dark man plucks the vial from Adam's fingers and holds it up to eye level. "This, however, blurs all of those lines." He gets up and goes before Adam can even say a word.

" _Adam?!...Adam!? Talk to me!_ " Serena screams over the com. Adam had no idea that she was shouting this whole time. Adam weakly lifts up his arm and tap his com.

"Someone was- was here. Made off with the blood... Gunshots and.. Agent Calderon.. He's dead."


	36. Episode 16 (The Devil's Stride Pt 3)

Rori woke up later that night. After her little breakdown earlier she had ended up falling asleep. Rori swore that the Peterson's had the guest room specifically set up for her, even though she hadn't been here in a long time, though she's called and emailed the Peterson's more than her own family.

Rori went opened up her suitcase and pulled out a jacket since it was a lot colder now. She walked back out into the main room and found Vanessa cooking up something. Rori didn't know what time it was, though it was dark, but honestly that could have been anytime between 4:00 pm and 6:00 am in New York. "Aurora?" Asks Vanessa when she found the younger girl was standing there oddly without saying a word.

"Hm?"

"Are you okay?" Questions Vanessa, walking away from what she was doing.

"Yeah," she answers curtly, but doesn't speak more than that. Vanessa walks over with a concerned look on her face. She runs her fingers through the knots of Rori's strawberry blonde hair.

"Ace and I were pretty surprised when you showed up. I mean, of course we're happy to see you, but you maybe should have called first. You usually do." Rori still wasn't acting like herself. She hardly even looked like herself. Vanessa and Ace both feared that she was too young for all of this and they were both positive now that they were right.

"I had a reason for coming here. Somethings... happened and I thought Ace might know more than most." Vanessa's dark eyebrows knit in confusion and worry.

"Know more about what, sweetheart?"

"People... turned cold and hard like stone." Vanessa looked very tense.

"Ace!"

* * *

"Adam's been... what?" Breathed Adeline. She couldn't even believe it. Her, James, Canary, JP and Alice had all sprung up and quickly rushed to the medical building in the compound as soon as they gotten a call about what happened. It was almost midnight, but not one of them had refused to come.

"He's Asgardian how in the world was he shot?" Questioned James. From the old files he'd snuck from his father out of sheer curiosity, it seemed to him like Asgardian's own flesh was tough like steel. Was Adam any different somehow?

"He's not a god, he's a human and therefore he bleeds," Serena answers lowly. She'd rushed to intercept the kids as soon as they had came in. She didn't want another doctor to start harping on them or letting on exactly how much trouble Adam was in right now.

"A lot," stressed JP. He'd been able to sense the distress of the situation, even if it was more of Adeline's thing. It didn't take a mind reader or a genius to deter the seriousness of the events that had transpired.

"What about the H-364?" Inquired Alice and Serena instantly whipped her hand and head to the side. Using her powers to clamp Alice's lips shut in an instant. All of the other kids looked confused, Serena looked like Alice had just sprouted a second head or something.

"How do you know about that?" The older woman asked, the sounds coming out roughly through her teeth. None of the kids had ever seen Serena act like this in her since they've met her.

"Adam told me," Alice answers as soon as Serena's influence had left her "he told me he was going to use it to save Matthew's life."

"Save his life?" James quotes with obvious astonishment in his voice. No one had ever let on that Matthew's condition was that bad. Nobody had said... James felt terrible now. Sure, he and Matthew weren't particularly friends, the raven haired boy was very distant, but that didn't mean James should have ignored him. James was there when Adam had first found Matthew. James knew that Matthew hadn't had a clue about his powers and he knew that Matthew was have a hell of a transition process. The second generation super soldier kicked himself harder than he ever had then.

"He'll be fine without it," Serena says sternly, leaving no room for argument "now go back to the house. I'll send someone over soon." The kids all looked at each other, then Serena. It was clear that she wasn't going to let them in on anything else, so they all started to saunter along. Once they were outside Alice took front, ahead of the rest of the kids.

"She's lying," the ginger speaks up. Canary quirks an eyebrow.

"How can you tell?" She asks. Alice makes no snide side comment tonight. Two of the only people worth even considering caring about had almost died. Matthew was still dying. This was personal now. Alice hadn't ever really taken anything this way before, but with the angry feelings that swelled up inside her, all of their enemies better beware.

"Inbred skill. Even when I was little I could always tell when someone was lying to me," she answers.

"We can't let Matthew die because of this," Adeline says, twirling her silver waves nervously.

"No really, cupcake?" Alice snaps obviously. James get's between them instantly. They didn't have time for things to come to blows.

"Enough. How is this going to help Adam or Matthew?" James growls and that wasn't usual for him.

"Help Adam?" JP inquires. He knew Adam was psychically injured, but not fatally. "What about Adam?"

"Isn't it obvious?" Starts Alice "Adam's going to be implicated in stealing the H-364."

"But he _did_ go to steal it," Adeline points out only earning a glare from Alice who was to her forward and to her left.

"Yes, but he was stealing it _for_ Matthew. As crazy as it was, he may have gotten some kind of partial pardon for that," Alice comments "but since it was stolen by someone with malicious intent and since Calderon was murdered and that one could say that Adam enabled that, do you really think Agent Weaver, Johnson and Hill are going to take it easy on him?"

"Oh no," breathes JP"you're right! They could peg all the blame on Adam for this one."

"We have to do something!" Adeline cries. Alice crosses her arms. Half for the aesthetic and half because it's freezing outside.

"Queen of the obvious tonight, aren't we?" The Russian teenager hisses.

"Come on, both of you," Canary snaps harshly "we all know what we have to do and I don't think any of us can do it alone."

"No shit, Sherlock," says JP almost wryly. Maybe they could use a bit of that right now. The situation was so tense that the air even seemed to be constricting from their lungs.

"You want to steal the H-364 back," says James. It isn't a question. He knows. In fact, he had the same exact thought.

"Yes," affirms the oldest of the current group.

"How are we going to do that?" Asks Adeline "I want to help Adam and Matthew as much as any of you, but we don't have anything to go off of."

"I know, but there's got to be some clue somewhere, nobody is good enough to be trackless," Alice points out. She knew some people who were incredibly good then some who were impossible good, but not one of them was perfect. Every one of them had a blind spot.

"This is true," adds James.

"But we're still going in blind," counters Adeline. She hated being the voice of reason sometimes. She wished that things would just work for once.

"Hold up," said Canary, holding up her cellphone "not necessarily."

"What's that?" Asks JP, squinting to try and see the small text. Eventually he finally see's "it's from Rori!"

"What is she doing? What did she say?" Asks James.

"She says," Canary starts, skimming the long text and reading parts out loud to them all "she says she's figured out who they are. _They_ had quotation marks around it and, um, she says that she met with someone who might be able to help."

"All with in two days?" Says Alice, even she's a little impressed and that was not an easy thing to do.

"I'm asking her where to rendezvous," says Canary whilst furiously typing and swiping on her see-through, plexi-glass phone.

"Who did she meet up with before?" Asks James. Canary, after she's sent her own message, scrolls back and skims Rori's message.

"She didn't say. Only that she could help," answered the blonde girl. She then set her phone to vibrate and slid it in her back pocket. "Everybody grab your cases and let's blow this joint."

"Couldn't you have just stuck with a simple _let's go_?" Question James, wryly. Canary waved him off.

"I liked my way better."

* * *

Adam waited impatiently in his room at the S.H.I.E.L.D hospital. He had been sectioned off to this room solely and others had been given order to not let him leave, thus the two giant guys standing on either side of the only door in or out of the room. Maria had finally come to visit three afters after Adam's initial conscious awakening.

"I see you've met you're new babysitters," Maria says with held back aggression. She implying this to the fact that Adam had left yet, even though he probably could of even he really wanted to, despite being injured. Bloody. Very bloody, but not fatal, at least not to a half Asgardian.

"I know you're angry... and that's probably an understatement."

"Probably?" Maria shot back.

"Well, I'm just going out on a limb here," he replies with his usual bout of snark. Maria isn't amused.

"Damn it, Adam!" She hisses angrily "do you know how many times I've stuck my neck out for you? I've lost count. You know Director Coulson and I took a chance on you and you have no idea how much I _hate_ that I was proven wrong."

"I'm not some kind of pretty thief, I was saving a life!-"

"And loosing one," Maria cuts him off bitterly. He tone is low and dangerous. It's way more menacing than yelling. Adam moved closer to the agent, trying to match her tone of voice.

"I wasn't the one who killed agent Calderon, even after he put a bullet in me. Now instead of throwing me under the bus so soon, you might want to try and figure out who did, because whatever he is he's bad news and he's played us all up to this point."

"You don't know that," Maria challenges. She moves back away from where Adam is standing. Adam sighs, frustrated and moves towards the open window, looking out into the night sky and the stars.

"The stone sightings began a few days before Matthew went critical, distracting S.H.I.E.L.D's resources," Adam starts and there's no venom anymore, just pain "someone must have known I was getting desperate and even more they know that I'd go for the H-364."

"This is ludicrous. You're implying that someone actually knew who Ross is. I'm even surprised you found out." Adam could tell that he'd lost all his credibility with Maria, but his next accusation sounded even crazier.

"What? That's he's actually Matthew Ross-Banner." Maria doesn't answer. She just scoffs and starts to walk away. "There's more," Adam starts "nobody was supposed to know other than the S.H.I.E.L.D council. Calderon was the one who showed up at the vault that night." Maria whipped around and stared dangerously and incredulously at Adam.

"You are seriously implying that Calderon was a spy? Are you out of your goddamn mind? People have made better excuses than that to save their own skin; you're disrespecting a dead man."

"I don't think he was.. under his own free will. The enhanced with him, whatever he said Calderon repeated." Maria didn't seem convinced or phased. Adam was desperate. "Come on, Maria! You and I both know that there are meta-humans that have influence over the mind! There's one in this building right now!"

"There's only one thing I do know right now, agent Foster," Maria spoke sternly and dutifully, even if she didn't want to "you are to appear in D.C with in four day so that the S.H.I.E.L.D council can preside over your trial. This is not up for discussion." Maria starts to walk away. She touches a spot of the door and it slides open.

"Please, Maria," Adam begs painfully "don't let the kid die because I messed up. He's only got one shot.." Maria doesn't say anything. She swallows hard, straitens her posture a bit more before walking briskly out of the room. Adam watches the metal door close. He yells angrily and crushes the glass monitor off to the side of the room. He leans against the wall after, letting some of it smear with blood from his now re-opened wound.

* * *

"Guys," Rori says relieved. She runs over to her friends and hugs Adeline. They met up in the city NYC, half way between where they were and where Rori was. Canary, James, Adeline, JP and Alice had all somehow managed to sneak off base, with a little mix of all of their various skill and abilities of course. Without them they might all still be stuck at the compound. "I got your message a few hours ago about Adam and Matthew, how are they?"

"So far? Not good," answers James sadly. He knows the scores and he's pretty sure Rori does too, even before she asked.

"You better have some bad ass back up, Stark," Alice deadpans. Rori separate's from Adeline's embrace and looks over to the in-training spy of the gang.

"Hopefully," she mutters.

"Hopefully?" Alice repeats, eyebrows raised "please tell me you actually know who you're with." In the moment Alice considers whether or not they should have ever let the young girl get away in the first place. Too naive, pretentious, vulnerable.

"She knows more about what we're up against," Rori says instead, hoping to allay her friends even a little. From a day with Ace and Vanessa and then meeting her anonymous ally, she'd compiled quite a bit of information.

"And what exactly are we up against?" Questions Canary.

"Inhumans," says a brand new voice, one familiar to both Adeline and Alice. She takes this moment to step out of the shadows, her eyes blazing gold instead of blue like they previously were when the two girls had met her before on a mission.

"Luna?!" Says Adeline, shocked "what are you doing here?!"

"It's a long story." Alice, arms no longer crosses, but ready at her sides just in case, looms a little closer to the new-comer.

"You're one of them, aren't you?" She accuses, staring at the girls brilliant gold eyes.

"You knew?" Inquires Luna, more almost amused than curious or even cautious.

"I had my suspicions," the ginger added "you did have to get passed a bunch of deadly serpent-like murderers to get to me, Matthew and back." The other members of the party just watch the two's exchange, not sure what to make of it. Luna flashes a lop-sided smirk.

"You're smarter than you look," she admonishes. Alice quirks an eyebrow.

"Yes, well, you've only even really seen me barely conscious."

"Fair enough."


	37. Episode 16 (The Devil's Stride Pt 4)

"I had... no idea you knew how to fly a jet," James breathed as he surveyed the way Rori handled things with supposed ease. Not that he really could make heads or tails of any of it. He had just only gotten his drivers license for pete's sake.

"One summer in Malibu my Dad decided to fix up and old quin jet. He scraped all the old parts, the outdated ones, ya know, from like 2015, forever ago- anyways, he let me help him put it back together," James looked pretty impressed, but Rori, being a self-conscious girl like anyone else redirects it. "I really just screwed in a few nuts and bolts. I never designed anything, I'm really not too creative. My Dad and my brother got all the brains."

"Dude.. you're flying a quin jet, you can't say that being a freaking pilot at 14 is not some sort of intellectual skill," James comments excitedly and of course optimistically. Rori can't help but grin.

"Or just a little weird," she says with a impartial shrug. James just shakes his head. It would be so cool to know how to fly, that was well beyond his mental and psychical capabilities. Anything beyond AP lit or Trigonometry was over his head and enhanced strength had nothing on throwing fire balls. James vaguely wondered what had happened to Rori to make her so repressive to her achievements. His trains of thought was derailed when her heard people from behind him whispering. He tried not to listen, but that was surprisingly hard when enhanced hearing was thrown into the mix.

"Not that I'm unhappy that you're here, but.."

"Why am I here?" Luna fills in for Adeline. Adeline sighs and hangs her head down. It was late. Rori and James were up front and Canary, JP and Alice were all getting some rest. Luna and Adeline had sequestered themselves to the back of the quin jet, sitting on padded benches along the walls. "It is a tremendously long story."

"Maybe you could give me the quick version then." Luna laughs silently and shakes her head in astonishment.

"You really still don't trust me? After all I did."

"No, no, no, it's not, well.. It's complicated," Adeline stammers helplessly. She doesn't say anything else and she didn't need to. Luna caught her expression well enough.

"Ah.. This is about V, isn't it?" Adeline's breath catches in her throat. She remembers it. All too well. "Look, he won't be coming around you again."

"But what if next time he doesn't come for me. What if it's-..." Adeline can't even finish. The horror that plagues her mind with even the thought of anyone taking her brother away from her was a complete travesty. She couldn't even hypothetically handle it. It was the only family she had left... well, she supposed that was exactly true anymore with recent developments come to light.

"He's not," Luna states firmly.

"How can you be sure of that? Won't he just follow you like last time and-"

"No," Luna says, looking past Adeline with a strange empty gaze in her eyes "as soon as I had figured out what he'd done, I was gone, just like that." Adeline just stared at the blonde girl, for a moment, who did not look back. Adeline suddenly decided to train her eyes downwards once more and nod dully.

"That's good... that you got out I mean."

"Hey," Luna snaps, but there's no real venom backing the words "he's not the bad guy. Really he isn't. He's just... lost, like anyone else in this bat shit, crazy ass world."

"But it's still home, bat shit crazy or not." Luna smirks, but then it quickly falters for reasons unknown to Adeline.

"Yeah."

* * *

Syth watched as operations continued to flourish around him. Stone chrysalis' were being constructed below him, from where he stood on the overpass. Things were going exactly as he had planned them to, yet he frowned upon looking at it all. "Isn't it marvelous?" Asks a suave, silky female voice from behind Syth. Her scarlet heels chink against the metal plates over the high-up overpass, her curly scarlet hair bounces over her shoulders in suit. She stops right behind him and wraps her impossibly pale arms around him in a lusting way. Syth looks on for a moment more before turning away and shrugging the woman's arms off of him.

"Less than satisfactory," he declares. The woman with blood red eyes and snow white skin frowns and walks over to the other side of the overpass and leans on the railing next to Syth.

"Well, perhaps we can find a way to fix that," she says with a lustful smirk. Her hands move closer to Syth's chest and he hastily slaps them away as soon as they get close to him. The woman's frown deepens. "Isn't this what you wanted?" She says a little peeved, but one look from the other man, with the entirety of his eyes jet black made the girl shut up immediately.

"People are so afraid of monsters, but it is so, so much worse to know you'll become one."

"These people knew what they were signing up for," the girl whispers in the mans ear, she's hovering over his hunched form.

"We're perverting our own kind. We were made to be monsters, but we aren't. It's like we're turning back the clock and changing what should be left alone," Syth says with little to no emotion. The woman rolls her eyes. Him and his Inhuman Pride thing. She was convinced that the Trifecta stole it from the mutant groups.

"It's just jitters," she soothes, still with the same aura of lust that she seemed to always carry around with her "soon none of us will be monsters," she says as she pressed the front of her chest to his back and wrapping her arms around his shoulders, tugging at his black jacket "soon everyone will be us. So if we are to be monsters forever, so will they."

* * *

"We really can't miss a beat on this one guys," Canary states with more than a hint of anxiety in her tone "if we get caught, if we get hurt, if we fail, if we're even late Matthew and Adam will pay. Badly."

"No pressure..." Rori mutters nervously and sarcastically. She knew the stakes. They all did, but none of them really wanted to admit it to themselves. Without whatever super drug they were getting or whatever it was, Matthew would die and Adam would be incriminated for the whole ordeal. It was all very bad news and it was 100% up to them.

"Everyone is clear on the plan, right?" James asks, just to clarify of course. It was a pretty intensive and elaborate plan to go on. Every nodded or gave anxious murmurs of agreement. They were to split up in pairs of two. Luna had helpfully suggested a strategic approach on that whereas they all divide in terms of compensation for each others skills or abilities. So therefore Alice was with Adeline, albeit with great reluctance. JP was with Rori and James and finally Canary was with Luna. It all seemed to work out well enough. Theoretically.

* * *

 **Alice & Adeline**

"This place is probably centuries old," Adeline murmurs as he and Alice climb yet another stone staircase.

"According to my mother," Alice says blatantly. She didn't usually talk about her mother and all with good reason. The place they were currently at, Sokovia apparently, was home to legendary base. Albeit, a bad one, one that once housed Hydra and Strucker, a Leviathan and- Alice shivered at the thought- Ultron. Even the generation after, the ones who didn't see the destruction personally, still feared the name. "Let's just keep moving. The sooner we take out the alarms, the sooner James, Rori and JP can move in."

"As well as Luna and Canary," Adeline adds quietly, knowing that they are the ones who were going to essentially steal the H-364.

"What is it with you and Luna?" Alice asks and there's something about the almost.. patronizing tone Alice uses. Maybe it's the accent, Adeline really didn't know, but it was still annoying.

"It's... complicated," Adeline says and really hopes that it would just stay like that, but of course it doesn't.

"Complicated?" Alice questions incredulously "what about you is actually complicated?" Adeline toys with the fabric of her suit and psychically looks uncomfortable.

"More than you know," Adeline breathes out heavily. Alice obviously catches Adeline's discomfort and for once in her life decides to leave it. Family was always an interesting situation with her and nothing she would want anyone to press with her. So she cut her some slack this one time.

"We need to get out plan together," Alice says instead. There was no doubt going to be someone stationed around the alarms and they couldn't risk it going off. That would ruin all operations before they even started, sealing Matthew and Adam's fate. They couldn't have that.

"Probably.. maybe we can, I don't know, lure whoever is there away from the alarm controls...?" Adeline says unsurely. Alice simply nods as she and Adeline start down a long open hallway. Not a good place to be when you're sneaking around. Anyone could walk in and there's no where to hide, although the plus side being that all of the camera's and wiring seem fried. Alice noted that almost immediately and counted it as a plus. She really didn't feel like she had time to teach someone like Adeline the subtle ways of covert operations, or even how to simply dodge surveillance.

"That's exactly what I was thinking," Alice states "but it has to be something subtle enough so they won't get paranoid and set of the alarms right away, but simultaneously has to be enough to grab their attention." Adeline frowned. She supposed that meant the use of her powers were out- She froze, or were they.

"I have an idea," she says almost excitedly. Alice raises and eyebrow at her emotional outburst. At least in her mind.

"Not really the time, cupcake, but let's see what you got," the ginger says as she can tell from the schematics Rori and mainly JP were able to steal for the base. Most of the place was heavily busted up from when the Original Avengers came through here in 2015 in the search for HYDRA, so only 1/4 of the building was really being used, plus the sub level, which was really more of a huge open warehouse type space.

Alice, being able to sense people right around the corner of the hallway, stopped Adeline right before she walked around unknowingly into a lot of trouble. Alice holds her hand out to Adeline as a subtle motion meaning wait a second. Alice strains her ears to pick up anything. She can tell there's a door near to where the two men in the next hall are talking and goofing off. She can hear old rusty metal hinges screaming under the pressure of newly installed iron doors. There's footsteps inside, faint, but there. One person, probably female, light on her feet. A second person can be hear inside the room. Shuffling feet, heavy boots scuff against the floor. It's a significantly louder tap down on the concrete floor. Male, shoe size between 7 and a half and 10, making height roughly between 6'0 and 6'5. Considering both Alice and Adeline are below 5'6, this should be interesting.

Adeline shakes Alice nervously. Alice snaps out of her near trance-like state. She hadn't been like that for too long or so she thought. "You okay?" Adeline mouths to the other. Alice nods and holds her hand out and cocks her head to the side, gesturing for Adeline to go ahead with her plan. Adeline holds out her hands almost mythotically and silver wisps generate from her pale fingers. It's almost hypnotic. As wisps continue to generate in her hands, wisps generate around the heads of one of the guys in the second hallway. Soon the wisps constrict and the guys arms and legs begin to mirror the movement of Adeline's fingers. Alice can't help but stare. The guy who is under Adeline's apparent control suddenly attacks his friends. Adeline's stomach twists in a horrible knot. It was vile, beyond that, she knew, but Matthew's life was at stake and she owned him more than her life already.

Suddenly the heavy iron doors to the surveillance room sly open and two people emerge; like Alice had predicted. They began to pull the two boys apart, meanwhile, it provided the perfect opportunity for Alice to get to work and needless to say, most of them were either hit into a wall, or landed on the somehow super soldiers fist. Neither of those options were preferable. Clearly. "Come on," Adeline says, walking passed the corner "let's hurry up and shut the system down." Alice looked back at Adeline coldly. She shook her head and started into the control room, not yet taking her harsh glare off of the other girl.

"Don't you dare tell me what to do you damned puppet master."

* * *

 **James, Rori & JP**

"As far as I can tell, the main ventilation shaft runs directly through the building in one strait line, we place charges in those, those whole place will be full of smoke in less than five minutes," Rori states, holding the schematics 3D model on her phone.

"So as soon as this stuff goes off," JP "everyone goes night-night." He smirks as he toys with a small, hand-grenade like device. James instantly snatches it away from him.

"No. As soon as this stuff goes off we all have 5 minutes to get out of the building or we all are out cold with all of these guys waking up around us." JP pauses, staring blankly at James.

"Grreeaaattt," he mutters sarcastically "this shouldn't be hard at all."

"It'll be fine," Rori says, trying to be encouraging "it'll be just like tactical training at school."

"Except possibly with real guns.. and knives.. and fists.. and you and I both failed tactical training, Rori," JP comments pessimistically. It was out of character for him. Really out of character, but the odd were tipped way out of their favor here.

"Yeah, well James didn't.. somehow," Rori says. She slips her phone into a pocket on her amazing fireproof suit. Rori was so sick of burning off her clothing and ending up naked. "I'm packing all the firepower we need and, JP, you are a mega wildcard. That all helps. A lot."

"Okay," James says, clasping his glove-covered hands together "let's get started." All three kids head into the back way of the compound together.

They had set up way-points previously and had given them each a single number and letter code to triangulate in case any of them got lost. They were all to set charges in the place; smoke everyone. If what Luna said was true and there were Inhuman like people out after S.H.I.E.L.D it would be a blood bath and everyone could agree immediately that they wanted to avoid that at all costs. After- If they succeeded they could call in S.H.I.E.L.D to clean this place out. No artillery, no protection, no transportation, no war. Simple. Perfect equation. And hopefully clear Adam's name in the process.

JP was covering the second level, which was partly broken open and very small. It was very unlikely that he'd see any action up there. James had the main floor, but with his amazing super soldier skills, no felt he'd have many problems either. Besides Canary, it was clear that James was the most impressive protégé out of all of them. Lastly Rori had the sub levels, which she was currently at now. One leap down and elevator shaft got her exactly to where she needed to go.

It was dark down there. Real dark. Rori was able to illuminate her extremis filled veins, a weird trait from her mysterious powers, it allowed her to see at least a little ways in front of her. Rori stuck the charge to the wall and set it to remote activation. It would be hell if any of these things went off by timer accidentally. Rori backed up, pleased with her work. She turned around and clumsily tripped over something, falling flat on her chest. "Ow," mutters the disgruntled girl. She gets up and brushes her jet black suit off. Rori's eyes catch the sight of what tripped her and she was brushing off her pants. Her thin light colored brows furrow. She crouches down to examine it out of sheer curiosity to what is actually going on down here. It was a stone, well, not an actual stone like you'd think. It was shaped almost like a human hand, but hollow and not quite so. After all, Rori didn't know any person who had long distinctive claws drawn off of their finger tips. Rori gently sets the stone hand and forearm back down on the floor. She notice then that there's a leg, also with claws. With Rori's estimated guesses, the stone shapes got weirder and weirder. Claws? Elongated head shape? A tail? Wings? Rori stepped forward to examine the hollow stone parts that look like they could have been wings once. On her way over she steps in something sticky and squishy. Rori grimaces and looks down at her boots. One shoe had clear goo all over it. It looked all disgusting and mucusy. Rori gagged as some somehow dripped on her shoulder- On her shoulder? Rori hesitated greatly to look upwards.

JP and James both heard a shrill scream from below them.

* * *

 **Canary & Luna**

"You still haven't told me anything about Inhumans," Canary states wearily. Luna rolls her eyes.

"What is it you exactly want to know? They're alien, generally assholes and dangerous."

"But that's what you are," Canary says and Luna shrugs "isn't it?" Luna stops from where she and Canary were trying to find a way to scale an elevator shaft since the stairs were crowded with hostiles at the moment. They weren't like Rori who could just jump down a four story drop strait down and suffer no injury.

"I guess... It is a long story. Maybe another time."

"But when will that be?" Canary shoots back immediately. Luna practically throws her hands up in frustration and exasperation.

"You all still don't trust me? Still?"

"Adeline seems to, but she won't breathe a word." Canary finally gets the idea to climb down the old elevator cable using S.H.I.E.L.D magnetic tech. They slip on like brass knuckles, but of the opposite way. Canary gives Luna a pair.

"Honestly," Luna says, shaking he head "what do I need to do to get you people to loosen your choke hold a little."

"You could start with the truth," Canary suggests. She slips on the devices and looks for the best place to jump from and grab onto the cable. Luna shakes her head again.

"I saved Matthew and Alice's life, does that not count for anything?"

"Oh, it does," Canary reprimands, hands out "it definitely does. You saved my friends and we are all grateful for that, but even as amazing as the story is, there's holes in it. A lot of holes." Canary looks Luna dead in the eyes. "You need to start with the truth or the rest of it just doesn't work." Before Luna can say anything Canary kicks off the edge where the floor ends into the large square opening of the elevator shaft and grabs onto the cable. Luna knew she had to follow in suit or else they would never find the H-364.

Canary was mostly weary about Luna because she couldn't pin a motive on her. She did what she needed to for Matthew, Alice and Adeline to send them on their way. She was fine and things were back to normal in her life, but she had left all that and now she was here in a death trap. Something wasn't right and Canary was praying that is wasn't the latter. They both made it down safely and immediately dove out of sight when the saw people.

"Like you holding back the truth about your hybrid buddy?" Luna challenges as soon as the two people walking pass them. Canary whips her head 'round and looks helplessly at Luna, fumbling over any formation of words. Luna holds out her hand. "Don't worry, I didn't plan on telling anybody. I know what.. being a hybrid means to people these days." Canary gives Luna a questioning, skeptical look. Luna scoffs, completely offended by this girl now. "Look, he's a bit on the annoying side, kind of a dummy, but that doesn't mean I want him dead."

"You still haven't exactly explains why you want him alive,"Canary shoots back. She checks the magazine in her gun, making sure the clip is full and loaded. She doesn't want to have to use it, but if it comes down to her, her friends and the other guy; Canary promised herself that she will choose to sacrifice the other guy.

"I don't want anyone to die from this shit situation. Vision and Adeline made this mess, I have a part to play in cleaning it up," Luna says. She has a hand on her special crafted adamantium rod. It's tucked up in the waistline of her leather pants. While Canary and all of the others have high tech suits, Luna has a hooded jacket and a small black mask. Didn't matter, although Luna would admit having some form of body armor would solve a lot of her problems.

"How is that your job?" Canary asks very quietly as she looks over the edge of the wall then swiftly moves to the next cover, gun in hand. This was the only place with a cooling system and good piping left in the entire building according to the map Rori had 3D analyzed. If a lab were to be anywhere in this dump, it'd be here.

"Adeline... is actually my cousin."

Canary and Luna finally make their way to the suspected location and sure enough things were set up, albeit not at all like the way they would have imagined. Viles and beakers of blood were all over, that much they guessed. What they weren't banking on however was that there would be huge stone catalysts in the center of the lab, illuminating green.

"Oh shit..." Canary breathes. An appropriate response for the situation. Even Luna is in a horrific state of awe. "I-I thought people were turned to stone... I don't know what kind of shape that is."

"Me either," admits Luna and their inhuman team member saying that is not comforting to hear. The two girls crouch behind two large hydrogen canisters. Said canisters being the size of a general hot water tank. One of the chrysalis' starts to crack open. Small bits of rock fall of and then nothing. Some of the people, who Canary assumes are scientists, walk closer to exterminate it further. All of the sudden, breaking the nerve racking silence, a horrifying harpy-like creature explodes from it's confines. Hissing and displaying it's new set of fangs by ripping into the throats of one of the scientists. Canary covers her mouth, feeling her stomach twist so much it's painful. Luna jolts back and makes some noise. Not too much, but enough. The creatures hisses lowly and it's almost like a cross between a trill and a hiss. "Oh god," Luna mutters, knowing it heard her. A few moments pass and there's nothing. Little did the two girls know that the creature was just taking those painstaking moments to wind up. The creature lunges at Luna and she's just barely able to hold it back with her rod. It hisses and slime drips out of it's mouth onto Luna. It ferociously tries to claw at her and bite her. Canary whips out both of her guns and starts to shoot at it. Corrosive black blood oozes out of the creatures back with every shot. It screams a blood curdling scream and tests the span of it's black, bat-like leathery wings. It soars upwards and hovers. It makes a quick nose dive downwards and hits Canary back into a wall, causing her to drop one of her pistols. Luna throws her rod at the thing and it pierces of of the bones in it's arm. The creatures howls in anguish. Canary takes this blissful moment of distraction to use the last pistol she has to fire at the creatures wings, disabling it's flying abilities. The bullets rip through the thin wing, piercing perfectly circular holes in each spot. However, Canary is still mainly cornered and the creature thrashes around in pain and retaliation. With it's sharp claws in rips a long, jagged cut down the left side of Canary's shoulder blade, down her arm. She screams in agony. Luna runs as fast as she can and jumps as high as she's able. She uses a part of the catalyst the creature emerged from no less as a knife to shove through the things throat from the back strait through. The creature coughs and chokes on it's own blood before falling dead. Luna jumps of the creature, as it is still figiting although it's dead. Canary is holding her arm and her expression is twisted in agonizing pain.

"You're bleeding. A lot," Luna stresses. She takes off her jacket, covers Canary's long wound and presses as hard as she can, but there's still too much torn flesh to cover and compress alone.

"We-we can't just gas the place," Canary says, her voice stuttering in pain "if these things get out.. it will be a huge problem. "

" _How many do they have?_ " James asks over coms. He doesn't seemed shocked by their conversation, so clearly he JP and Rori had run into a similar problem somewhere down the line. Canary looks over Luna's shoulder, down under the overpass at all of the hundreds maybe thousands of stone catalysts and even worse a timer set on one of the thin glass screens, counting down. 40:00 minutes... 39:59, 39:58, 39:57. Decreasing duration.

"Enough for an army," she breathes in astonishment and fear "we have to blow the place-"

" _No!_ " Rori shouts over he com " _No! If we blow it all up then we have nothing to prove to S.H.I.E.L.D! Adam might still be implicated for Agent Calderon's death!_ "

"But if we don't blow it up thousands of people might die," Canary. Adds. She hates it. She HATES this. "Sokovia has no mainstream defenses. They don't stand a chance."

"She's right," Luna adds.

" _So, you're saying we're forced to choose Adam... or.._ " James trails off.

"Or what he'd want us to do," Canary voices lowly.

* * *

 **Alice & Adeline**

"Two people or two thousand.. there's no comparison," Alice says over her come, though it's said painfully. She knew that of all people Adam didn't deserve the conviction for this, but these monsters were hatching from the stone catalysts at a faster and faster rate and the clock was ticking down. There was no way to stop time, but they could stop these creatures.

Alice and Adeline had been charged with finding a way to prove Adam's innocence, but so far no evidence could be found. Alice kicked herself mentally. What is they'd actually think they'd find in this place anyways? Like some complete clarifying evidence of a nearly impossible fact to prove would just be laying out for everyone to see! Alice felt a near hatred. They were basing this whole half of the rescue mission on faith. Even if they did get some sort of evidence that Adam hadn't killed Calderon, he still stole one of the highest secure 084's in S.H.I.E.L.D history, then lost it to an occult group of half-aliens who were using it for god knows what!

" _We can get some of the H-364_ ," Luna explains over her com link. All of the scientists around them had been killed by the creature. It was a confirmed suspicion that they were using the H-364 to create monsters, Luna had solved that for herself. Not all inhumans were psychically changed like that and hardly any of them were at all anymore, they were creating the monsters from the inhuman genetic marker and this chemical compound or blood, or whatever it was. Luna couldn't help but ask herself this; the others thought this blood would save Matthew, but the inhumans were using it to build weapons off mass destruction. If this was the true case, then what was Matthew to become?

" _And get rid of the rest?_ " James asks, remembering what Canary had claimed, that they had replicated the compound. Luna, where she was, looked around at the huge canisters of nitrogen.

"Shouldn't be a problem," she informs. Adeline is just listening on. Adam had saved all of them and hey were just giving up on saving him, but at the same time she was all for it to protect her home town. She had never felt so torn in her life before. If it were up to Adam and he were here he'd blow the place, without a thought, but then why was this still so hard?

" _We have to reset all of the charges to explosive,_ " Rori adds " _and quick. If I've been counting right, we're down to a half an hour at most_."

"And if any of those things spring out prematurely again, it will be even more of a setback," Alice adds. Every sets off to do their jobs. Luna is getting a injured Canary out, Rori, JP and James go to reset the charges and Alice and Adeline, well, they've both opted to spend as much time as they have to keep searching for something. Anything.

* * *

 **Canary & Luna**

"You trust me yet?" Luna asked as she was helping Canary down a hall. It was clear that Canary being in the state that she was in was not going to be able to climb an elevator cable. Luna would have been surprised if the girl could still feel her fingers at this point, let alone climb four floors up.

"As of right now you are making great strides," Canary says and she grunts the last word out harshly as Luna stops suddenly. The good inhuman had spotted a charge still set improperly. "I thought Rori was suppose to take care of these?" Luna says nervously.

"So did I," adds Canary with just as much anxiousness in her voice. Luna looks around at all angles before gently lowering Canary down and against a wall.

"I'm going to be right back, just keep pressure on those bad parts in the gashes."

"Planned on it," Canary rasps bitterly as Luna runs off at top speed and so Canary just sat there. She started to feel a bit dizzy and tired, but that was probably to be expected due to blood loss. Despite the also added queasiness and heavy eyes, Canary willed herself not to pass out. Her eyes fluttered marginally however, though once when she opened them once a person was in her view at the end of the hall. It looked like a silhouette, completely dark and when the shadowy figure loomed closer there wasn't much change. Canary gripped the H-364 vial in her pocket tightly. Sure she might have been drawing suspicion to it, but in this frame of mind she was currently in, all she saw was that this was Matthew's only chance at survival. He looked at Canary, who had somehow gotten to her feet, but she was still unsteady. He grinned, but it was cold and dark like his entire exterior. His pale white, so light he could give Adeline a run for her money. His eyes were blue, but also so light them were almost white. Almost transparent, but there was a cold, piercing emptiness inside them. Beyond that there was nothing.

"Well, well, well, what do we have here?" He asks, eyeing the S.H.I.E.L.D insignia on her suit and the bloody cuts that would no doubt become scars on her arm. Canary subtly slips a knife out from the side pants pockets of her suit. She swing her arm round, knife held sideways and she comes this close to slitting his throat. She normally would never attack someone with a move so fatal, but everything about this man screamed danger. He moves back just in time with ease. Canary continues to assault him, but with no avail, he knocks the tactical knife out of her hands and it clatters against the floor and falls away. He takes a tight grip of her forearms so that she cannot move them and for Canary to move even one of her feet out from under her would certainly mean she would collapse onto the floor. "Tsk, tsk. You're fighting against death, girl," he says and his voice is low and it's a strange sort of hiss, like a serpent- Deadly- but also enticing and terrifying. Canary slams her head forwards to hit him and she greatly succeeds as his nose starts to bleed and he stumbles back, but unfortunately, so does Canary and she looses her footing with the imbalance from blood loss. Blood loss rate which is only increasing due to her fighting. "And yet you continue to fight."

"To the end," Canary forces a smirk up again as a confident facade "if you're actually it, which I highly doubt."

"You're treating the matter of your death with humor?" He says, eyebrows rising slightly.

"You're not going to kill me, if you were going to you would have and if you're just playing with me, like a cat to a goddamn mouse then that's your mistake, because you will lose to me," Canary says with as much false confidence that she can.

"So fiery, such a fighter," he muses. His eye flicker black and he casually stuffs his hands into the pockets of his jacket. He looks over the deep jagged cuts on all along her arm. "Clearly it isn't your intention to die my a monster."

"I would have gone for ass-hat, but your version works too," she says with a hint of arrogance. She was falsifying being cocky. Anything she could do to by herself so more time, even if that meant keeping this bastard amused. He laughs, but there's no warmth in it. It's as cold as the rest of him.

"All you humans are the same," he muses darkly. His eyes turn fully black for a second as he comes closer. Too close. That it until he catches side of the H-364 vial sticking part way out of Canary's pocket. "And yet you'd risk everything for something as horrific as I."

"You're a monster because you're a killer. And you're sick and sadistic and hold no regard for human life. Having abilities isn't what makes you a monster," Canary spits "I'd rather be anything else than what you are." The man looks amused and deep in thought, though his optical attention does not waver over the younger girl. Just then fuzz and noise emits from Canary's com link. It had fallen out of her ear when she'd tumbled over.

"We've got five minutes guys. If we wait any longer shit starts happening. I repeat, five minutes and this place'll be roasted," JP says loudly over the com. So loud that both Canary and the man can hear it. He raises his eyebrows, surprised, but not angry or upset or...anything really. He's just blank. Barely even astonished.

"Well, it seems our efforts have failed," he says blandly "don't worry, we'll be back." It was voiced and sounded far too monotone and plain, but it was in fact a threat. Hands still stuffed in his pockets he begins to walk away. Out of sight and back into the shadows. Canary's world spins dangerously again. She decides it's time to find Luna and fast and get the hell out of here. She had been allowed to live this time and she didn't want to push her luck any further.

* * *

 **Back at S.H.I.E.L.D HQ in NYC**

All of the kids were invaded by S.H.I.E.L.D agents as soon as they made it back to the compound. All apprehended as it were. They all fought at the front entrance. They didn't have time for this. They had been flying all day and received news that that night Matthew had gone completely critical, loosing almost all neurological functions and flat lining once. He was at standing on the edge deaths doorstep and was being invited in.

One of the agents grabbed the H-364 vial out of Canary's pocket. He brought it to eye-level and looked at it. He tapped the radio on the side of his uniform, informing, most likely agent Hill, that he found the chemical. This is it. It's all over if this big burly man takes the H-364 away from them now. James feels a rush of courage surge through him. He shakes off the current agent holding him and punches the man with the H-364 in the jaw as hard as he can and because he is a super soldier, that was pretty damn hard. He falls flat on his back, his padded jacket cushioning the glass vial with the chemical. Everyone else caught on then and all starting fighting back, damning the consequences and do whatever they had to protect their own. Alice scooped up the vial with the H-364 in it and ran like hell. A big man got in front of Alice, but Luna, the unexpected member of the party, hit him down.

"Run, Alice!" Cried Canary. The ginger didn't need to be told twice. She ran as fast as she possibly could to the medical building. She tears through the minimal security there, meaning that Adam was no longer present, which meant Alice was on her own. She ran into the room she knew was Matthew's and moved the big couch vertically up in front of the door. The girl didn't even know she could move something that heavy. Maybe it was just adrenaline.

Alice turned around and her lips parted, her eyes widened. He looked so... so... dead. So motionless. Was she too late? Alice slowly loomed closer. The agents who were guarding the medical building began furiously pounding the door, vigorously trying to get it open. Alice, however did not change he pace. She was too stunned. Alice loads the H-364 into a syringe carefully. Slowly. She hols it out. Just the the guards incessant pounding has caused the couch to tip over back horizontally and enabled them to open the door just a crack, but it wouldn't be like that for long. "Thank you," Alice breathes, even though she's fairly certain Matthew can't hear her at all " for saving my life. I'm trying to make this right..." The guards charge in, but it's too late. Alice has already plunged the needle deep into his arm.

* * *

 **To be continued in** _ **Dangerous Games**_ **Season 2**

 **All _Dangerous Games_ Seasons are released later on after their completion. Season 2 has already started on . To catch up on that _click here_ \- **_**story/40787622-dangerous-games-project-next-avengers-season-2-out**_


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